Class 

Book. 

Copyright^ 0 

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IMIMBilliinHnHH^BBB^H 



LIVING 

ILLUSTRATIONS 



BY 

BEVERLY CARRADINE 



AUTHOR OF 

The Old Man — Sanctification — The Sanctified Life — Heart Talks ■ 
Soul Help — Pastoral Sketches — Pen Pictures — Remark- 
able Occurrences — A Journey to Palestine — 
Mississippi Stories, Etc., Etc., Etc. 



THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS CO. 
CHICAGO and BOSTON 



'C34 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Gooies Received 

DEC J7 1908 

copy a, 



Copyright, 1908, by 
THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS CO. 



CONTENTS 



THE HORIZON 7 

THE RED RIVER RAFT 9 

THE GRAPHOPHONE 16 

THE CLOCK STORE 22 

THE WASP 26 

THE GRAY WOLF 33 

THE DOOR KNOB 37 

A BRUISED ONE 42 

THE RED CHECK 47 

THE OSTRICH 50 

A PERSISTENT ORGAN GRINDER 54 

THE DEAD ENGINEER 58 

THE POWER OF KINDNESS 61 

THE YELLOW JACKETS 67 

THE THROUGH CAR 70 

EFFECT OF A CHANT 73 

THE BACKSLIDDEN TENDER 76 

A SETTLING SENTENCE 80 

A FOUNTAIN RUN DRY 83 

THE ELEVATOR MAN 86 

THE RIVER JIM 90 

THE SKYSCRAPERS...'. 94 

FACIAL LYING 97 

THE FAITHFUL ONE 100 

SHIFTING BLAME 104 

a 



4 INDEX 

MISUNDERSTOOD 118 

THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD Ill 

A WEAK-MINDED LITTLE GIRL 114 

BUNSBY IN THE PULPIT 118 

THE BIRD IN THE TENT 122 

PLAGIARISM 124 

TARRY AT JERICHO 127 

GARLANDS AND STONES 130 

THE CUT DOLLAR BILL 133 

THE ALARM WHISTLE 135 

THE PROLONGED WHISTLE 13 8 

WHERE ART THOU 141 

THE SICKNESS DODGE 144 

"I WILL HAVE MY WAY OR DIE" 147 

"LET HIM HAVE IT" 150 

THE DISCARDED MUSIC BOX 152 

MISSING THE CAR 155 

THE SKY PIERCER 157 

THE VISION OF FAITH w 159 

WORRYING 162 

FRETTING 164 

THE UNBRIDLED TONGUE 166 

THE QUARTETTE 169 

A COLLEGE RECOLLECTION 171 

THE BATTERY 173 

THE PULLET AND OSTRICH EGG 175 

THE VISIT OF A FROG 178 

THE DITCH AND ITS LESSON 180 

SHOUTING BY PROXY 182 

THE DISFIGURED HAND 185 

THE ROUND AND FLAT SYSTEMS 188 

THE TAILLESS FOX 190 

PUZZLING CASES 193 

A BLUNDER OF WISE MEN 195 

A FEMALE SHAKER 198 

UNCONCEALABLE JOY 200 



INDEX 



5 



EVERYTHING IS QUIET, BISHOP 20l 

"DOING NICELY, THANK YOU" ... 203 

REMORSE 2Q5 

A COFFEE REVIVAL 206 

THE LARGER BUILDING 208 

WORKERS MISJUDGED 210 

HOME TALENT '..'.['.'.'. 212 

THE BITTER SPIRIT n1 . 

^14 

A MAN WHO LOOKED LIKE CHRIST 216 

A LOCOMOTIVE PARABLE 218 

"WHERE'S THEM BOYS" m * 22Q 

THE WIRE FENCE POSTS 221 

THE BANNERLESS BUILDING 223 

IGNORANCE OF SCRIPTURE 225 

THE SMALL CANINE ... 227 

AN UNFORTUNATE 22g 

SAVED THROUGH KATY-DIDS 2 3 0 

LONELY YOUNG MEN 232 

TWO DOMESTIC INCIDENTS 234 

A POLICE COURT SCENE 236 

A HUMAN PILLARED TABERNACLE 239 

THE DENUDED ROOSTER [[] \ 24Q 

UNTIMELY SINGING 241 

KNOCKED INTO THE KINGDOM ... . 243 

AN OLD SHOTGUN 2 ; 5 

TWO DEATH BED SCENES ..'. . .[. 246 

MEANINGLESS PRAYERS 24 § 

"THEY SAY" ^ ^.V.3.V'.'.'^ 249 

IMPATIENCE 250 

I SAW YOUR LITTLE BIRD 251 

A CRY ON THE RACK . 252 



THE ACHING TOOTH 254 

A CHANGE OF C 
THE CAT BIRD 



A CHANGE OF OPINIONS..., 



• 256 

DON'T BE TOO CONFIDENTIAL 258 

A BULLET OF BREAD 259 



0 INDEX 

THE ICE YACHT 261 

"A MIGHTY POOR MEETING" 262 

TENTING BY A GRAVEYARD 264 

A NOCTURNAL MEMORY 265 

A SILENT TOWN r 267 

THE VOICE OF THE SEA 269 

THE ABSENT SINGER 270 

DOUBTFUL PRAISE 271 

A PLEA FOR FREEDOM 272 

DIFFERENCE IN MINDS 272 

THE MUD HOLE 274 

A SERIOUS MISTAKE 275 

♦'ALL POOR CRITTERS" 276 

A FORCIBLE HINT 277 

THE TIGER HEAD 277 

THE RED WOOD TREE 278 

THE CALL OF THE PINE TREE 279 

A TOUCHING EPITAPH 280 

THE VACANT CHAIR 280 

THE GATEWAY OF BLUE 2S6 



THE HORIZON. 

For a great part of my life a sky vista has exercised 
a strange influence upon me. A horizon of clouds 
tinged with scarlet and gold, or a wavy line of blue 
or purple hills or mountains in the distance set my 
mind to dreaming and my heart to yearning and 
aching. The sight of a broad, majestic river winding 
away, and disappearing in a remote landscape had a 
similar effect. The feeling was that something or 
somebody was down that river, or beyond that cloud 
bank, or mountain range, whom I wanted. O, how I 
craved certain unmet earthly conditions, and the grati- 
fication of certain unspeakable hungers of the heart. 

As the years pass away these peculiar heart- 
breaking longings seem to leave. We look upon the 
same scenes, but are no longer moved as of yore. 
What is the reason? 

Perhaps it is because we have been down the river; 
or far beyond the mountain range; and found that 
what we desired was not there. Or, worse still, 

7 



8 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



likely the opposite of what we expected greeted us. 
Anyhow, a great change is seen to come over the 
soul. 

There seems to be a silent education going on in 
the life more important than that which we obtain at 
schools and colleges. From observation of men and 
events, from all kinds of experiences within, and 
occurrences without, there goes on an appropriation 
and rejection, a mental sifting and assimilation, to- 
gether with such knowledge and obtainment of heart 
conditions and personal character that out of it all a 
new man seems to have been formed. And it was all 
done so gradually and silently! 

We read once of a little orphan girl who lived with 
a family who provided her food and clothing. She 
had been so unkindly and unjustly treated, so many 
things had been rudely snatched from her hands by 
other children, that even when she had anything given 
her she held it with a loose grasp, as if she did not 
expect to keep it long, but that it would be soon 
taken away. 

We doubt not that the soul comes into this con- 
dition; the life falls into this kind of pose. The 
attitude is indeed full of pathos, but it is also full 
of inspiration and power. The man who holds earthly 
blessings with a loose grasp has received a marvellous 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 9 

education. He has a knowledge which the universities 
can never impart. 

We once saw a picture which carries the idea still 
farther. The painting represented a young woman 
standing with upturned face on a terrace. At her 
feet on the ground lay bunches of roses which she had 
evidently dropped from her hands. The explanation 
of the sacrifice was seen in the form of a beautiful 
white dove flying toward her outstretched hands. She 
had given up the flowers to get the snow-white bird. 

In other words, we grow weary in looking down the 
river and towards the sea for a ship that never comes. 
We quit building castles with the clouds on the 
horizon. We bid our hearts to cease beating them- 
selves into an agony against the rim of the horizon. 
To cease looking earthward. But to gaze heavenward. 

Verily, it will come to pass that, when the blossoms 
of this world lie forgotten at the feet, the Holy Ghost, 
like a dove, will come fluttering into the soul, and 
the spirit of the often disappointed man or woman 
will find rest. 

THE RED RIVER RAFT. 

In the South we have a noble stream emptying into 
the Mississippi, and called the Red River. Tapping 
and penetrating wide regions in the West as well as 



10 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



the South, it was prior to the Civil War a great high- 
way of travel, and means of carriage for vast crops 
of cotton and corn from the interior to the outside 
world. Hence a small fleet of steamboats plowed its 
muddy waves and their bells and whistles were 
sounds of ordinary occurrence. 

During the war a raft formed in the channel, and 
from a temporary obstruction as first regarded, it 
grew in a couple of years to be forty miles long! It 
was such a pack, jam, tangle and choke that not only 
all boat traffic was stopped, but the very current of 
the river oozed through the clog of timber and ob- 
struction of drift as though with pain and difficulty. 
Storms, floods and caving banks had all contributed to 
the raft, so that not only a mass of trash and brush 
abounded, but great trunks of trees were ranged in 
ranks, piled up in layers, and a number were pointing 
upward like telescopes. 

The very sight of this forty-mile raft or river pack 
filled the heart of the State of Louisiana with despair, 
and so she appealed to the General Government for 
help and deliverance. 

In due time it came, and the United States despatched 
boats and workmen to the spot with great saws and 
axes, mighty lifting machines, and any quantity of 
dynamite. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



11 



They commenced operations at once, and began 
blowing up sections of the raft at a time with the 
explosive mentioned. A Methodist preacher witnessed 
much of it, and told the writer that he beheld every 
imaginable object and article come out of that timber 
and drift pack, from a knitting needle up to a gin 
wheel. He said he was kept in constant amazement 
at the things pulled up and out of that long, dark, 
winding, twisting Red River Raft. 

His statement made us think at once of something 
more dreadful than the sight beheld on the Southern 
stream and that is a choke, jam, pack, tangle and clog 
in the soul and moral world. The Red River Raft is 
in the State and Nation to-day, in numerous churches, 
in thousands of families and in many an individual 
life. 

It does not take long experience in the ministerial 
life to recognize the "raft" in the audience. The 
evangelist, by touching many communities and facing 
all kinds of congregations, becomes even more expert 
and correct in this strange knowledge. By intuitions, 
lightning-like impressions, and the operation of certain 
faculties of mind and spirit which we hardly under- 
stand, we know there is something wrong in the 
church and family life when not a soul has spoken a 
word to us. A blockade of trash and lumber and 



12 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



buried things in the life has no actual telegraph wires 
running up from that unseen world, with messenger 
boys to carry dispatches concerning its position and 
size; but for all that, its existence is as well known 
to the worker anointed with the Holy Ghost as though 
operators, reporters, artists, and a regular railway 
mail train had come up from the place itself and de- 
clared that the long, snaky, curling, twisted and deep 
thing was there. 

An impeding something is seen to be in the man 
or felt to be in the church service. There is no rush of 
the River of Life with musical murmur through the 
soul or the congregation. The Old Ship of Zion with 
its exultant, cheering whistle, has not been heard on 
those waters for a long time. There was a period when 
she took on passengers for Glory, and discharged a 
cargo fresh from Heaven on the heart's landing place ; 
but that has ceased to be. The Raft formed ! The ship 
comes no more. The Water of Life barely oozes in 
some souls, and is utterly gone from others. The heart 
pack, life choke, soul clog, character blockade has been 
formed. The spirit has been literally filled with trash, 
drift, and lumber of all kinds. The man himself does 
not know all that is hidden away in him. He forgot 
to keep count. The logs came so fast that he got 
bewildered. The church has lost record of the 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



11 



different bickerings, jealousies, evil speakings, viola- 
tions of discipline, and questionable worldly entertain- 
ments in and out of the sacred edifice; and that alto- 
gether makes a raft which hinders the revival and 
keeps back and out the grace and spirit of God. 

All who have any spiritual discernment must 
feel that something is the matter. Figures and 
images crowd the mind to describe the situation. The 
wheel is in the mud and will not turn. The wing 
is clipped, and there is no mounting up. The sword 
has lost its edge, the salt its savor, and the air its 
ozone. The fog is all over the country, the fire dead 
in the furnace, the wind out of the sail, the channel 
dry, and the ship stuck fast in the mud. It takes all 
these metaphors to give some idea of the state of 
things when a "raft" is in the church. 

Sometimes the church raft is forty years in extent. 
Sometimes it is that long in the life of an individual, 
The very length and thickness of it is paralyzing and 
would fill all concerned with despair, if we did not 
have the great General Government of Almighty God 
to appeal to, for the management of the matter. The 
thing itself is too great for us. All protracted meet- 
ings ending without a revival, convinces us of that 
fact. The strain, drag, emptiness, lifelessness and 
fruitlessness of the regular services prove the dreadful 



14 



LIVING ILLUSTRATION'S 



solidity and immovability of the "raft/' so far as 
human power is concerned. 

God, however, has saws, axes, lifting and pulling 
machines and any amount of dynamite by which he 
can blow up all such obstructions in the country, be 
they political, civil, ecclesiastical, household or in- 
dividual. This is what is done in a real revival. This is 
what took place in the services held by the disciples, 
and in the meetings run by the Wesleys, Whitefields, 
Nelsons and Bramwells. It is what happens to-day, 
when a genuine, scriptural. Holy Ghost service comes 
to pass. At such times rafts suddenly rise skyward, 
and go to ten thousand pieces. 

Here also comes in the nine days' wonder of the 
public over the revelations made by the exploding 
or blowing up of these life packs, soul chokes, and 
spirit blockades. Things not dreamed of are found 
to have been hidden away for years. Animosities all 
unsuspected and undeserved are confessed to the 
astonishment of the victim. Wrongs are righted. 
Thefts, adulteries and murders are admitted. The 
burning down of one's own house, the bearing a false 
name, the existence of two wives or two husbands, are 
all matters of confession when the raft is really blown 
up, or a genuine revival has come. The writer has 
witnessed every one of these features in his meetings, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 15 

with many other gruesome things he has not time to 
mention. In one place he beheld a half dozen recon- 
ciliations in ten minutes, and in another a merchant 
paid a poor widow woman six thousand dollars to 
reimburse her for a business wrong he had years 
before inflicted upon her , and of which she was 
suspicious but had no proof. 

All these things made conditions that puzzled 
pastors and spiritual members of the congregation, 
who wondered what was the matter that services were 
so tied up in their church, and salvation at such a low 
ebb. The explanation was a raft, curled and twisted 
back for five, ten, and twenty years, and even longer, 
through which the grace of God could not flow upon 
the people, until confession was made, sin renounced, 
and restitution extended to the wronged. In other 
words, the raft had to be blown up. 

The raft in Israel's case lay just under Achan's tent. 
It had only a few days to increase in size, but it was 
able from the beginning to dam up the grace of God, 
and keep victory from the whole nation. When it 
was dug up or blown up and finally burned up in the 
valley of Achor, then nothing and nobody could stand 
before the people of God. 

It is for each man, or congregation, to find out 
where the trouble is; that is, to locate the raft. When 



16 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



discovered, the next thing is to pray for the dynamite 
of Heaven to come. Then will happen the explosion, 
or a genuine revival. Then the water of life will fill 
the ecclesiastical channel, the old ship of Zion will 
resume her regular trips, passengers for Heaven w T ill 
be taken on every Sabbath, and cargoes of grace and 
glory will be rolled off on each landing place of the 
heart at every service. 

THE GRAPHOPHONE. 

I wanted to send my children a Graphophone, but 
the cost of the instrument, coupled with a certain 
flatness of pocket-book, prevented what I desired. I 
felt unable to meet the price. 

But one day while walking down Tremont Avenue 
in Boston, I saw in the show window of a Music 
store, one of the desired objects with a placard at- 
tached to it reading : 'This instrument for ten dollars." 

"Oh" I said as I stopped and looked at it, "I can 
spare ten dollars/' 

So I walked into the store and said to the merchant : 

"I see you have a graphophone which you sell for 
ten dollars." 

"Yes sir." 

"Is it a good one?" 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 17 

"Yes indeed. It renders ballads, operas, dialogues, 
oratorios, band pieces and everything in the music 
line." 

"Let me hear it." 

In response he brought out a number of records 
and I could not but be charmed with what I heard. 
Not until later I recalled that he only played a record 
once; that he did not make the instrument go twice 
over the same piece, but would take another cylinder 
and wind the machine afresh each time. 

As remarked, this procedure was not remembered 
until hours afterward, but being quite pleased with the 
effect of a single rendering of each piece I purchased 
the graphophone and a number of records, and took it 
to my room at the hotel, to give it another trial before 
shipping it home. 

But in the test in the room, with nothing to rush or 
hurry, I made the instrument play longer than the 
salesman at the store had done. Without rewinding, 
and without removing the record, I tried to make it 
go a second round, when lo! it broke down, or more 
correctly speaking, ran down in the middle of the 
second trip. I tried a number of records but it was 
the same with them all. To my intense disappoint- 
ment I discovered that the machine in which I had 
invested could not pull through on a second journey. 



18 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



So rebundling the instrument and records, I went 
back to the store and interviewing the owner told 
him : 

"I find on trial of your machine that it breaks down 
on the second revolution. " 

"Yes," he replied, "that is so. That is the way 
with all those ten dollar graphophones." 

"But I want one that doesn't fail that way," I re- 
joined with anxious voice and eager face. "I want 
one that holds out faithful to the end." 

"Oh well," returned the merchant, "if you desire 
an instrument like that, you will have to pay thirty to 
forty dollars." 

"I'll do it," I cried. "Here's the other amount. 
Give me the machine that goes through without 
breaking down." And I threw several ten dollar bills 
on the counter. 

The reader will observe in this double transaction 
that I was not finding fault with the music sent forth 
by the first instrument; that part was eminently 
satisfactory; but it was the feature of continuance we 
were after. We wanted the melody to be of an abiding 
character. 

So we paid the higher price; got the larger, better 
instrument, and shipping it home, soon had a letter 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 19 

from the children, expressing their delight with the 
gift I had sent them. 

Just so it is with the two blessings or experiences of 
the Christian life. Both have the sweet melody of 
salvation, but the first received has a way of running 
down, while the other plays on without a break 
through the years, indeed the lifetime. 

But it costs far more to obtain Holiness, the second 
divine bestowment, than pardon, the first work of 
Grace. 

If God had hung the second experience in the show 
window with the cost of its obtainment attached to it, 
none of us would have turned into the Store of Grace, 
but would have passed on down the street of life and 
landed in Hell, at last. 

The prices, so to speak, of the two blessings are 
very different. We give up our sins to secure pardon, 
but we have to yield up ourselves to obtain holiness. 
We surrender or drop the works of the Devil in the 
first instance; we consecrate the works of God in the 
second. The Devil made sin; God made us. 

That most of the Lord's people have never made 
this payment is evidenced in. their withholding of tal- 
ent, gifts, property, reputation, ambitions, imagina- 
tion, affections and will. What a time the preachers 
have to persuade them to come to church; visit the 



m 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



sick; relieve the poor; hunt up the stranger; lead 
meetings and give as they should to the cause of God. 

Such Christians of course know nothing of a steady- 
spirit of praise; a constant strain of joy and gladness 
in the soul and on the lip, for they have never paid 
the price and do not own such a graphophone of full 
salvation. 

Hence it is that if the Lord had placed the Second 
Experience in the window with the price of Holiness 
attached to it, few or none would have obtained the 
blessing. 

But he caught us through the first Blessing or Par- 
don. The price was repentance, the forsaking of sins, 
and faith in Christ; when instantly we felt and heard 
the music in our souls. We never had melody and 
harmony in there before. 

But behold ! The song had a way of stopping. We 
would go hours without any joy or praise in the soul. 
Oh if it would only keep up and play on! We were 
disappointed in this feature of salvation. The music 
was lovely, but we were surprised and pained and be- 
wildered at the way it would cease and the instrument 
run down. 

So we reported to the Lord, and told Him we 
wanted perpetual gladness in the heart. We craved 
an abiding blessing. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 21 

And we were told that to secure such an experience 
as this, we would have to pay down all we had and 
were, and ever expected to be. That it took a great 
price to obtain such a freedom. That it required a per- 
fect consecration, an unquestioning, implicit, eternal 
obedience to God, and a perfected faith in the Blood of 
Christ to obtain and own the experience of constant 
cleanness, gladness and glory in the soul. 

The cost and condition would have utterly and com- 
pletely frightened us away if beheld and encountered 
at the beginning; but God had managed the whole 
thing right ; and now already in love with the melody 
of the First Blessing, and most ardently craving to 
have the music of Heaven in us all the time, we were 
only too glad to pay down and give up all we had, to 
possess the sweet, beautiful, joyous, upwelling, abiding 
blessing of Full Salvation. 

The instant we paid the greater price, the Lord 
swung the larger music box into our soul, and with 
many of us it has been playing without a break for 
months and years. 

Through weariness and painfulness, in toil and 
loneliness, in spite of misunderstanding and abuse, 
in face of false friends and open bitter foes, on flying 
trains and in the lonely hotel room, through the long, 
hard battles of protracted and Camp meetings, at 



20 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

home and abroad, on the land, on the sea, wherever 
we go, the sweet, glad music of Full Salvation sweeps, 
surges and rings on in the soul. 

The Blessing, which cost us all we had to obtain, 
never leaves us ; in a word the Music Box in the heart 
never runs down. 

THE CLOCK STORE. 

We stood in a large jeweler's store and noticed the 
counters and shelves loaded and lined with timepieces 
of every description. There were clocks, handsome 
and plain, large and small, alarms, chimes, gongs and 
cuckoo ; there were one day, eight days, two weeks 
and a month's timekeepers until the eye was fairly be- 
wildered with the variety, and the ear distracted with 
their different sounds. 

The great regulator, fully six feet in length, hung 
in the clear light close to the broad and lofty show 
window. It struck no hour, made no ticking sound, 
but kept time for all the other clocks in the store, 
and for everybody in town besides, with a solemn, 
steady swing, whose regularity nothing in the shop 
inside and nothing on the pavement and street out- 
side in the least disturbed or affected. 

We noticed that the timepieces nearest the regulator 
were accurate in their pointing and striking. They also 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



23 



seemed ready for service and delivery, looked bright, 
seemed to be oiled up, and appeared all right every 
way. Their inner and outer life agreed. Their out- 
ward testimony did but reflect and declare the cor- 
rectness and faithfulness of the internal machinery 
and hidden life. It was delightful to see how they 
agreed with the regulator, and when the greater ma- 
chine lifted its hands in a certain position, they did 
the same; and when the larger pointed to a certain 
hour, the faithful little band nearest the light, all 
sounded out the true time without a disagreeing voice. 

But the farther down the store we went, and the 
greater distance from the regulator, the more we were 
impressed with the inexact pointing, wrong striking 
and general disagreement among the congregation of 
timekeepers. Made to be helpers and directors, and 
needing to be true and accurate, they were wrong and 
did not even agree among themselves. According to 
their testimony, it was every hour of the day. 

It was really 12 o'clock, and yet suddenly one with 
a deep, solemn note that admitted of no contradic- 
tion, insisted it was three in the afternoon. That tes- 
timony had scarcely died away when a round-faced, 
fiery, little fellow in a corner, as if in a perfect fury 
at being overlooked and differed from, whirred forth, 
and rattled off at a two-forty rate the hour of ten. 



n 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



This was promptly disputed a moment later by an old 
eight-day wooden affair that with rumbling wheels 
and tin pan accent affirmed that it was as late as seven 
in the evening. 

So the divergent and discordant experiences went 
on with the additional grotesque feature that some 
struck one way and pointed another! 

Still farther down the aisle the clocks were all silent. 
Some had run down, some had never been wound 
up, and so a profound stillness prevailed in that part 
of the store. The farther the time indicators and 
declarers were from the regulator the worse seemed 
to be their condition. 

In a room back of the store was a sight still more 
gruesome, of clocks in every stage of disintegration 
and dissolution. Springs, hands, pendulums, dial 
plates, wire coils, strikers, sounders, and every kind 
of brass, steel and iron mechanism lay on the floor, 
while the wooden and metal frames were heaped up 
in corners as so much tinder, or refuse and scrap 
piles. 

We hardly need to declare this parable to the reader. 
It is self-evident. 

We have only to look around to behold the differ- 
ences, divisions and distractions in the religious world. 
Men and women on every side are clamoring and 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



85 



insisting that they are right, and every one else wrong. 
That they have the only true machinery, and keep the 
only correct spiritual time, You have to come to 
them to know who you are and where you are. They 
know exactly the periods and seasons of the world 
itself. Non-essential doctrines are pointed to, and 
false teachings are held up. The strangest, wildest 
experiences are beat, banged, screamed, screeched and 
cuckooed all over the country. Listen to the clocks ! 

Meantime no two of these manifold divisions agree, 
Hands diverge, voices conflict, testimonies war, state- 
ments contradict, and the medley and confusion is 
mind-distracting, ear-deafening and heart-sickening 
beyond words to describe. 

Then there are some who once pointed right, and 
sounded the true and correct spiritual note, who are 
now cold, silent, and dead. 

Still others have utterly gone to pieces, and lie for- 
gotten in the Devil's Scrap Shop. 

We might well despair if we did not have the great 
Regulator of Heaven in our midst. Christ is left. He 
still points out the way and declares the truth, the 
whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 

Around him are gathered some who, regulated, oiled 
and wound up, are in doctrine, life, word and deed, in 
harmony and faithful agreement with Him. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



And yet in these days of wrangling, jangling and 
general confusion and discord in the religious world, 
our comfort strength and inspiration are not derived 
from the sight of the faithful few in the land who 
are true to God; but from the knowledge that the 
great Regulator, Christ, has come into the world. He 
has been lifted up in our midst. He is never to be 
taken down until his work is accomplished. He him- 
self will not faint or be discouraged until his labor 
has been performed and redemption achieved. And 
it will be done. The day is coming when the church 
will have her glory to come upon her. She will arise 
and shine. The nations will wait on the Lord for his 
law. The devil with all false prophets will be over- 
thrown and cast into hell. And the earth will be 
filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
cover the sea. 

THE WASP. 

We were reading some time ago about a spoiled, 
fretting child, and a patient nurse who was doing 
everything in her power, but all in vain, to pacify and 
satisfy him. The fashionable mother was taking her 
late morning nap before rising, and being startled by 
a frequent recurring shriek or scream from the win- 
dow where the two were sitting, would ask the nurse 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



27 



with a petulant, exasperated tone — "What on earth 
is the matter with the baby?" 

The replies would be, "He wants this/' and "He is 
cr) r ing for that," or "He is pulling for something else/' 
The sleepy directions of the mother would be, "Let 
him have whatever he wants." And one time, not 
hearing distinctly what the girl said, the mother said 
impatiently, "I tell you to let him have it." 

In another minute there was a frightful yell from 
the window by the child, and the mother, now thor- 
oughly angry over her frequent disturbance from 
slumber, cried out: 

"Mary, didn't I tell you to let the child have what- 
ever he wants?" 

The quiet answer of the nurse was: "That's just 
what's the matter with him now, ma'am. He's got 
what he wanted!" 

The thing the child screamed for was a wasp. He 
got it! And then he shrieked because he did get it. 

Let the reader glance around him in life and see if 
this is not what is going on everywhere and all the 
time among grown up people. For what are men and 
women after all but grown-up children. They are 
taller and heavier, it is true, but what about the con- 
duct so strikingly like that of a child. 

Men reach, struggle, grasp at and cry for things 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



they insist on having. They get them in many in- 
stances, and then the world is treated to gushes of 
tears, tearings of hair, groanings of spirit and sobs 
and cries because they got the very things they said 
they must have! It certainly must appear to higher 
intelligences looking down upon us from the skies, 
that there is and can be no pleasing some people. 

The trouble is that when we have our way, we 
always get the wasp, and it is not less sadly true that 
the sting goes along with the wasp. 

Poor, foolish children that we were, we only saw 
the pretty thing flying about and never considered a 
moment about the after consequences of silly actions, 
the human and divine judgments which follow 
transgression, and the injury done our own mental, 
physical, and moral nature by evil or a wrong course 
of any kind. So the land is filled with the cries of 
those who got what they craved, and also obtained 
something else that they did not desire, viz., the suf- 
fering which invariably attends or follows the having 
our own selfish, stubborn, self-opinionated way. The 
wasp is caught, but the sting goes along with the 
wasp. 

We knew a preacher who after years of faithful 
service conceived it to be his duty to leave the work 
of saving souls and go into politics. He argued him- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



29 



self into the belief that the quickest way to save the 
nation and the world was to remodel the laws at the 
state and national capitals. Then commenced the 
struggle for nomination first and election afterwards. 
He soon began to wear the stereotyped smile and to 
manipulate the machine-like handshake of the office 
seeker. The Gospel was utterly dropped and politics, 
trade, taxes, and reform constituted the burden of his 
public speeches and private conversation. Friends 
remonstrated and warned ; told him that he was mak- 
ing a ghastly mistake. But no! he would have his 
way. He was elected first to the Legislature, and 
afterwards to Congress. He got what he wanted. But 
it turned out to be a wasp, and the wasp had a sting. 

The position and environments he found himself in 
stung him to death in the deepest, saddest sense of 
the word. We saw him a black-faced backslider in 
the midst of his successes. Later we met him as a 
defeated candidate for re-election to Congress. Later 
still a heart-broken life wreck ; the State did not want 
him, the Party was tired of him, and the Church had 
no work where she could station him. His w r asp had 
stung him with a vengeance. 

Quite an attractive young woman turning from a 
number of excellent suitors engaged herself secretly to 
a young man about whom she knew nothing. Fearing 



30 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

opposition from home she wedded the man without 
the knowledge of her mother, and carried the burden 
of deception in her breast for months. 

Finally the divulgence came of the secret wedding, 
and the husband arrived and took her away to the far 
North. After that the revelation of the man himself 
slowly but surely took place. He was totally un- 
worthy of the love she had royally heaped upon him. 
After a few weeks he became neglectful, then abusive, 
sold her valuables and jewelry, made a kind of slave 
and drudge out of her, and took from her the hard 
earnings she had ma.de in various ways with her own 
hands, and had set aside to purchase a railroad ticket 
to visit the far distant mother. So by degrees her 
heart was broken, and she sank into an untimely grave 
in the very budding period of a lovely young woman- 
hood. She would have her way. She got the wasp, 
and it stung her to death. 

In a town in one of our Middle States a couple were 
wedded with every prospect of a lifetime happiness. 
In a year a child was born, and the wife, who had 
been friend and companion to the deserving husband 
up to that time, now commenced drawing away from 
him and giving all the hours to the little one. This 
conduct did not end with the infancy of the babe, but 
went on year after year. The man saw his home 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



si 



change to a mere boarding place. He was not wel- 
comed at the door, nor his companionship sought when 
he was in the house. His cares, troubles, business, 
seemed to have no place in her mind. Evidently he 
had become little more to her than a bill-paying ma- 
chine, while the child was the real head of the house, 
the sun about which everything and everybody had 
to revolve. 

We read once of a plant of the vine order that sprang 
up somehow in a dark cellar. There it drooped awhile, 
and then some one having accidentally knocked off a 
piece of brick or mortar, a little crevice was made in 
the wall and a ray of light entered. Towards this 
beam of light shining through the crack the vine began 
to work its way, and finally came through the aper- 
ture and up and out into the open day. 

So it was with the man we refer to. He was not a 
Christian, but when in his darkened life, light fell on 
his social and affectional nature, he w r as uncon- 
sciously drawn to persons and places where he received 
the sympathy, help and spirit response that he craved. 

One day the wife's eyes were opened to the fact 
that the husband had ceased to make any protest 
about her treatment of himself. Still later she was 
more thoroughly aroused on seeing that he was actu- 
ally indifferent as to what she did or did not do. Then 



32 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



came the shocking revelation that his love utterly 
weaned from her, had been given to a person who had 
neither legal nor scriptural right to possess it. 

The interview was a stormy one on her part, while 
he sat almost as immovable as a marble statue under 
her wasp sting cries. Finally he told her that her 
own conduct steadily persisted in for years had slain 
his love for her. He informed her that what she had 
counted as worthless and deserving no consideration 
or attention, others had esteemed valuable and picked 
up. He added that while he would be true to her so 
far as the laws of God and man were concerned, and 
that he would always see to her support, vet the fact 
remained that his love for her was dead, without hope 
of resurrection, and that she had slain it with her 
own hand. 

Truly she had her own way. She got the thing she 
wanted. But what about the sting. As she looks 
to-day at a husbandless home, the question will come 
up, did it pay to so persistently have her way? 

Nor is this all the sting that comes of such a course; 
for we have always observed that the children we 
do most for, and sacrifice ourselves and others for, 
are the ones that give us the deepest stabs in after 
life. 

We never knew it to fail; we believe that it never 



i 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



SB 



will be otherwise; that whoever pushes on in life 
insistent on courses plainly declared against by the 
laws of God and man, withstood by good sense and 
sound judgment, and pleaded with by a protesting 
love and every tender spirit and emotion of the soul, 
is bound to come into lifelong trouble. 

Men and women who will have their own way, like 
the child at the window, will obtain what they desire. 
But in getting what they want, the rule is that the 
thing captured is a wasp; and the trouble about 
the wasp is, that it always brings its sting along 
with it. 

THE GRAY WOLR 

While in a large Western city lately, holding a 
meeting, I noticed in passing from the hotel to the 
place of preaching, what at first appeared as a very 
large gray dog chained in front of a livery stable. The 
fact which first struck me was that all other dogs that 
came around gave this big lead-colored canine a wide 
berth. Usually there were five or six of the species 
lying about, but I noticed that while they had 
their heads turned toward him, and regarded him with 
deep interest, they kept fully twenty feet between 
themselves and the central figure. This occasioned 
considerable wonderment in my mind, until one day 



34 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

I saw the gray animal, while sitting on his haunches, 
suddenly lift his head, point his nose in a straight 
upward line to the sky and give a prolonged, mourn- 
ful howl, which made the blood fairly tingle in the 
veins, for the double reason of the weird, melancholy 
sound, and a memory which flashed like lightning 
over the mind. What I thought to be a dog was a 
wolf! 

How the recollection rushed to my mind of stories 
I had read of snow-covered Russian plains, or dark- 
forests, -with gallant horses flying along the road with 
a sleigh filled with precious human lives while a pack 
of wolves pressed on close behind with red mouths 
and lolling tongues, and giving forth the dreadful 
howl, which presaged death, and froze the hearts of 
the listeners with despair. 

I understood now at once why the dogs around 
town would not have fellowship with the gray animal 
who was chained in front of the stable. I thought he 
was a dog, but he was a wolf. The dogs of the city 
knew him better than I did. They did not take to 
him. They heard his testimony, through, long and 
mournful as it was, but there was no response on 
their part. I listened and not a single one said amen. 
I studied their faces closely, and I saw they did not 
believe one particle in him. By some strange instinct 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 35 

or intuition they saw there had been no change of 
heart or nature with him. They were ready to grant 
that the strange brother looked somewhat like them ; 
but his voice was against him, and his experience put 
forth in that high-sounding way, seemed to freeze 
every one of them up, and there was not the slightest 
indication of a hand-shaking being inaugurated or a 
brotherly kiss exchanged. 

Who has not had something like this to occur in his 
life? Who has not listened to testimonies and been 
confronted with individuals who claimed to be one of 
us and one with us in the Christian life and holiness 
movement, and we found it impossible to fraternize 
or feel at rest with them. We battled with the feel- 
ing as being a senseless prejudice, unworthy of our- 
selves and unkind and unjust to the person in ques- 
tion. But the same strange shrinking from the indi- 
vidual remained. We prayed against the impression, 
but there was a kind of crawly feeling in the soul 
whenever the party testified in public or affected cor- 
diality in private. There was something in the voice 
that failed to awaken an echo in our spirit. When 
he or she gave forth the public declaration, pointing 
the face upward to the sky, it did not have the genu- 
ine ring, and it did not sound exactly right. There 
was a certain confusion in the Canaan language. All 



86 . LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

through there was an approximation but never a cul- 
mination. 

Some weeks, months or years afterward, we discov- 
ered that the individual was a wolf. He became not 
only a personal enemy, but an enemy to the holiness 
people at large with whom he had tried to train and 
run. Worse still, we have known some such to turn 
out perfect frauds, humbugs and impostors. 

John's explanation of them is in his first epistle, 
where he says, "They went out from us, but they were 
not of us ; for if they had been of us, they would no 
doubt have continued with us; but they went out, 
that they might be made manifest that they were not 
all of us." 

But the great lesson of this parable of the gray wolf 
is, will God give an instinct to' dogs to protect them 
in their swift recognition of an enemy; and will he 
not vouchsafe spiritual discernment to his children 
to deliver them from false friends, religious shams, 
and all their soul adversaries 0 Whether they come 
from earth or hell ; attack us in open fight from the 
world, or stand up as secret foes in meeting, and lift- 
ing the face to the sky, give an experience as long as 
the one hundred and nineteenth psalm; will not the 
Lord deliver and save us? 

We for one believe God will thus help us, and has 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



87 



helped us; and this is the reason why, with nothing 
but kindness of soul to all men, and with pity 
and Christian love for the apparently right brother, 
we are strangely kept back by an inner restraint from 
opening up the heart life and home to some slick- 
tongued, smooth-mannered newcomer who points his 
face to the sky, and speaks out so well in meeting. 
God would by a spiritual instinct or moral intuition 
save us from the mistake, and even the lifetime disaster 
of getting up a gush, and falling on the neck of old 
Mr. Gray Wolf, who was trying to pass himself off 
among us as Brother Simon Pure Sheep. 



THE DOOR KNOB. 

While entertained at a small hotel recently, we 
endeavored one morning to enter the dining room 
through a narrow passage way, instead of by the 
office, which was filled with smoke and smokers of the 
tobacco order. But the door at the end of the hall 
would not admit us to the banqueting chamber, al- 
though we turned the knob to the right as all respect- 
able and well behaved and orthodox door knobs should 
be manipulated. 

The effort to get in was a firm and steady one, but 
the entrance was equally fixed and resolved, and so 



88 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



finally supposing the portal was locked, we turned 
back and took another route to the breakfast table. 

As the meal proceeded we asked the waiter why 
the door in the hall was locked. He replied that it 
was not. We then asked why did it not open when 
we tried to get in. His rejoinder was, which way 
did you turn the knob? We told him, to the right. 
He smiled and said: 

"If you turn it to the north it won't open, but if 
you turn it to the south it will." 

We came near whistling aloud. We did smile. And 
certainly indulged in some thinking, and applying of 
an instantaneous and correct order. 

The Door Knob Family swept at once into recol- 
lection and before the view. We recalled that it was 
divided into two great branches. 

First, those who will not respond to the right ap- 
proach. We bring the truth to bear upon them, and 
they will not yield. The blank face, the immovable 
countenance, the unbarred heart and closed lips remain 
before us, although the right message, the correct 
manner and the proper speech were all observed in 
trying to bring them to duty and to God. They would 
not turn to the right. 

The second branch of the Door Knob Family can 
only be opened by being approached, handled and 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



turned a certain way. This is not necessarily the 
right way, but "their way." It may be a wrong mode 
both as to the human door and the human opener, but 
the fact remains, they have to be approached in a cer- 
tain manner, or they will not open heart, purse or lips 
to God or man. 

There are horses that will not allow themselves to 
be mounted except from a certain side. To come on 
the other side at them is to be rewarded with a snort, 
plunge, shy, kick and run away. There are other ani- 
mals that if smoothed down one way seem highly 
pleased and will purr their satisfaction, but if their 
fur is rubbed backward, there is an immediate spit! 
scratch ! and claw ! 

Like the door knob in the hotel these animate ob- 
jects bring out with confirmatory clearness, the class 
of individuals of whom we are writing. No matter 
how true and just and righteous the subject is we 
bring such people, if we do not present it in a cer- 
tain style agreeable to these aforesaid parties, they 
will have nothing to do with it or us who tell them 
about the theme. On the other hand if a person 
comes with what is not true or wise or righteous, yet 
if he manipulates their weakness, if he panders to 
their crankiness, bows down to their hobby, ministers 
to their pride and vanity, rubs the fur the right way, 



40 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



turns the knob to the south, then he can get immedi- 
ate access to heart and purse, and enter into the room 
and about take charge of the whole house. 

This is what Royal Favorites, Successful Politicians, 
Society Parasites, Family Flatterers and certain Pop- 
ular Pastors do ; they turn the door knob to the south 
instead of the north, to the left instead of the right, 
and walk in and take possession of the person, circle, 
congregation or party they have fooled. 

They do not operate the human door knob right, ac- 
cording to God's Word and the best interests of our 
humanity, but they worked it successfully so far as to 
the accomplishment of their desire, purpose and plan. 

We once knew a preacher who was without salva- 
tion, and yet who could do what he would with a large 
congregation, because he turned the door knob in a 
way that pleased them. Another pastor filled and 
led by the Spirit of God had no ascendency over or 
favor with this audience to be compared with the 
backslidden preacher of other years. 

Again we knew a pastor who could secure money 
and that in abundance out of wealthy people whom no 
one else could move a particle. Some of these indi- 
viduals belonged to his church, and others were out- 
siders who attended without being members of any 
denomination. Among the latter were theater-goers, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 41 

stock gamblers, lottery stockholders and open violators 
of the ten commandments. 

He had a way of putting his hand on their shoulder, 
clapping them on the back, gazing admiringly in their 
faces and telling them they were noble hearted, 
princely fellows. He told them there was no place in 
hell for such men as they were; that he wished the 
world had ten thousand more like them, etc., etc., 
etc. 

Of course, he got what he wanted for the different 
collections of the church; for naturally the smoothed 
down parties felt grateful to be told, contrary to con- 
science and the Bible, that they were not going to 
be lost. 

He turned the door knob to the left instead of the 
right; to the scorpion in the south, rather than towards 
the polar star in the north, and so he got in, but he 
entered the wrong way. 

How contemptible it is, and how blighting and blast- 
ing to character, to play on the prejudice, ignorance 
and vanity of an individual for the obtainment of 
certain financial and ecclesiastical ends. And how piti- 
ful and despisable to the moral sight will be those at 
the Judgment who are found not to have labored and 
given to the Lord and His Kingdom as He has indi- 
cated and commanded, but contributed and acted be- 



42 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



cause of a personal liking to an individual who soft- 
soaped and honey-fuggled and rubbed the fur of their 
egotism the right way, so as to make them feel good 
and purr out their satisfaction. 

Instead of giving to God, the money which was 
said to be a gift to heaven, was really so much wages 
paid a man for swinging a censer full of flattery and 
praise under his swollen, distended but delighted nos- 
trils. 

A BRUISED ONE. 

There has always been something peculiarly affect- 
ing and heart appealing to us in the sight of that 
unfortunate class called the weak-minded. 

Here are beings who are made to suffer heavily 
and carry life burdens and endure lamentable depriva- 
tions from no fault of their own, but through the sin, 
neglect, or culpable carelessness of others. 

When they are born in this state, or pass into it in 
early childhood from some fall, blow, or sickness that 
could in almost every instance have been averted, the 
case becomes all the more pathetic. 

Upon the face of these "bruised ones" usually comes 
a vacant expression, an absence of that fine facial 
handwriting of the soul, which the spirit impeded in 
some way cannot trace on brow or lip or in eye; and 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



48 



so a blankness instead is left that moves the heart 
to its depths over the contemplation of suffering inno- 
cence, and the remediless wrong of a lifetime. 

Some of these afflicted ones wear a look of woe that 
goes like an arrow to the heart. Others bear a cowed, 
frightened expression which makes the tears gather 
swiftly as we gaze. The world looks so big and 
cruel unto them, and from that great world they 
have gotten nothing but an heritage of pain and 
trouble. 

In one of our meetings we saw in the front pew 
one of the class we have been attempting to describe. 
The bruised one in this case was a lad of about eight 
years of age. The countenance bore that melancholy, 
unmistakable sign of an injured mind. The wistful, 
pathetic mien and appearance was there that is always 
observable in these cases, and that has never failed yet 
to bow down completely the heart of the writer.^ 

In this instance the touching expression was in the 
eyes, although the face had pleading lines. It im- 
pressed us that the child had received many a rough 
word and cruel blow, and was expecting more. 

Now and then, under an act of kindness, there would 
be something like a flash of light in the countenance, 
to disappear immediately the next instant, while the 
old half-fearing, half-expectant, wistful look that 



44 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

would puzzle language to describe, would settle 
once more on the poor, little, pinched, woe-begone 
face. 

Each morning before entering the pulpit, we would 
sit a few minutes by his side on the front pew, where 
he had for some reason posted himself. Through 
repeated gifts of nickels and dimes we ingratiated 
ourself into his favor, and found him after that, 
nestling up to us when we took our seat by him. 

With a heart that fairly ached over the boy, whose 
sad history we had learned as to his poverty, cabin 
home, rough household circle and their harshness to 
him, we could not keep from putting an arm about 
the little fellow and speaking tenderly and lovingly to 
him. 

We understood afterward that the tableau we 
presented afforded considerable talk as well as amuse- 
ment to some in the audience. It may have been so, 
but it was a matter of indifference to us, as we had no 
thought at the time for the people around us, who 
did not need our sympathy, but both mind and heart 
were on the stricken lad before us, who had received 
such a knock-down blow in his birth and life, and for 
no fault of his own. 

One day we presented him with a handsome pearl- 
handled knife. His father, a low, coarse, selfish being, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



45 



took it from him, appropriating it for his own use, 
and giving the boy a rusty, broken-bladed barlow that 
came nearer being nothing in, the knife line than any- 
thing we ever beheld. 

The child had accepted the robbery without a 
murmur, being accustomed to wrongs and ill-treat- 
ment of every kind all the time. But we said to him, 
"You must tell your father to return you that knife ; 
I gave it to you, not him/' He nodded his head with 
a kind of dawning intelligence or apprehension that 
he had been unjustly dealt with. But the light soon 
faded, and he seemed content with the barlow. 

One morning after one of our small silver coin gifts 
to him, he nestled up to us, and, with a pleading look 
on his face, said, 

"Ain't I your little boy?" 

And with our eyes brimming over with tears and 
a voice we could command only w r ith difficulty, we 
replied as we placed an arm around him : 

"Yes, you are my own little boy." 

And his face lighted up, and a patient little smile 
came on his lips, while he gazed at us with un- 
mistakable love and gratitude in his eyes. 

One day he told us, "I'm going up to the altar to- 
night to get saved." 



46 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



He came, looked around wonderingly for some time; 
and then hid his face in his hands as he saw others 
doing. 

The sight of the little, unkempt head bowed down 
on the altar rail, the bruised one at the footstool of 
God, was exceedingly affecting. 

Each day after this he would say to us, "Fm coming 
back to the altar to-night. I'm going to get saved 
again." 

Poor little fellow! Somehow we felt that the Good 
Shepherd would not let this injured lamb fail to reach 
the heavenly fold ; but would bring him up and 
through in spite of every adverse condition and 
circumstance, and would see to it that the next life 
for the child would be better and happier for him in 
every way. 

In addition to all this the lad furnished a lot of 
parable teaching to us. We said as Ave studied his 
case, that we were, in our unspeakable inferiority to 
God, nothing but weak-minded. That we were un- 
lovely and unattractive and ignorant and all but 
helpless. That the divine pity and love manifesting 
itself in countless gifts and mercies, awoke our stupid 
slumbering souls, and won our love. 

That, finally, we were that melted and moved by the 
goodness of God to us in our poor estate, that we 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



41 



nestled up to Him and said in a tearful, trembling, 
pleading voice : 
"Ain't I your little child?" 

And blessed be His name forever! His arms went 
about us, His face beamed upon us, while His own 
voice whispered with all the tenderness of Heaven : 

"Yes, you are. You are my own beloved child." 

THE RED CHECK. 

I was on my way from New York to Boston. The 
Ticket Agent in the Central station informed me that 
it cost seven dollars to go on the Express which left 
at 10 o'clock. I gave him the money and he handed 
me a ticket. 

Boarding the train which consisted of five or six 
coaches, I took a seat, deposited my valise, and pulled 
out a book to read. 

As we left the depot the Conductor came down the 
aisle collecting fares, and pausing where I was sitting 
absorbed in my volume, nudged me in the side with 
his hand and asked for the money due the Company. 

I presented him my ticket, which he took and kept, 
and gave me a red check which I slipped in my hat 
band, placed in the rack above my head, and resumed 
my reading. 



48 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



As the train was a Flyer, it made only six or 
seven stops between New York and Boston. The 
first was thirty miles distant, where on arrival, a 
number of the passengers got off, and a number of 
others got on. After a little the Conductor came 
down the aisle as before, collecting tickets, and 
stopping by my side where I was buried in my book, 
and not remembering me in such a crowd, poked me 
in the side again and demanded my fare. 

I lifted my eyes from the volume I was reading, 
directed my finger at the red check without saying a 
word, and instantly he passed on. 

The same scene occurred at the second and third 
town, where quite a crowd disembarked and an 
equally large one came aboard. Down the aisle again 
came the collector of tickets; again failed to recognize 
me in the throng; once more punched me in the ribs, 
and once more with his dry machine-like voice said, 
"Tickets !" 

Each time I would raise my eyes, motion to the red 
sign in my hat, to see him just as quickly leave me, 
pass on by and vanish down the car. 

Finally with the fourth stop, and the usual change 
of passengers, the conductor approached as usual, 
paused by me, touched me on the side, and said, 
"Tickets." 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 49 

By this time I was becoming wearied of that con- 
ductor, and my side was getting sensitive and sore 
where he had punched me so often, and then I was 
interested in my book anyhow. So when I felt his 
shadow fall on me, I never raised my eyes from the 
printed page, but simply pointed with my finger 
towards the red check in my hat and kept on 
reading. 

In an instant he was gone ! 

After that the identical proceeding worked like a 
charm. No machinery oiled and regulated could have 
done better. The man would come, stop, punch me, 
say "Tickets!" and I would read on, point upward at 
the red check with my finger, and then he would 
disappear like a flash! He had to go! I had the red 
sign which said I was paid up, was all right with the 
R. R. Company and could go on unmolested and pro- 
tected to the end of my journey. 

It seemed to me at this very time, that the above 
incident gave me a better conception and under- 
standing of a certain verse in the Old Testament than 
I ever had before. The passage referred to is: "When 
I see the Blood I will pass over you." 

The Devil is always after us with his nagging voice 
and irritating touch. Over and over he stops by our 
side and tries to collect tears, sighs, groans and every- 



50 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



thing else he can wring from us on our trip from 
Earth to Heaven. 

But if we have the Blood of Christ on our souls 
we are exempt and secure. We need not be vexed, 
disturbed or affrighted at the worrying demands of 
men or every devil in Hell. 

All we have to do is to quietly, smilingly and 
persistently point to the Blood of Jesus that was 
shed! To the Red Sign on our Heart! And keep on 
reading our title clear to Mansions in the Skies ! when 
behold! Every foe of earth and imp in Hell must 
pass on and by us, and we in due time, safe and sound, 
w r ill sweep triumphantly and exultantly into the great 
Union Depot of God's Eternal City in the Heavens. 

THE OSTRICH. 

In going down into Southern California I visited 
an ostrich farm, containing one hundred of those 
long-necked, altitudinous-legged birds. Standing in 
their sock feet their mild, simple-looking, flat heads 
were poised from seven to eight feet above the ground. 
Some of them had not been stripped of their plumes, 
and were walking around perfectly satisfied if not 
delighted with themselves, and doubtless feeling they 
were greatly impressing all beholders, when the com- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



51 



bination of those luxuriant feathery ornaments and 
that silly-looking little head was such as to keep a 
number of us continually in a broad smile. 

We found it simply impossible to keep certain lines 
of seriousness and gravity straight on the countenance. 
We had seen the big plume and the little head go 
together so often that Brother and Sister Ostrich that 
morning brought in remembrances of the past like a 
flood. 

Once, in approaching a castle in Scotland,, we saw 
a soldier standing guard before the main gate, or 
portcullis. The thing that impressed us as we drew 
near was the tremendous shako on his helmet. It 
was three times the size of his head, towered high, 
drooped low and covered one-third of his face. I 
almost trembled as I got nearer to this fearful military 
spectacle, and was expecting to behold a fierce,, iron- 
like front, with bronzed cheek and grizzled moustache,, 
when, glancing timidly upward, I encountered one of 
the mildest, emptiest-looking countenances I had seen 
in many a day. The fierce appearing soldier was a 
smooth-faced boy of about eighteen! 

Who of us have not felt an awe stealing over the 
soul as we beheld the uniformed officer of the militia 
company, or regalia attired, grand mogul of some 
fraternity, both crowned with a feather duster, walking 



52 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

backward and giving fierce commands to the tramping 
battalion or procession, suddenly turn and reveal a 
meek, adolescent-faced baker or prescription clerk of 
the town, who never was in a battle, and, what 
was more, had no idea or intention of ever 
being in one. 

Then, upon the street, in the shopping time of the 
day, we again see the ornamented skull apparition; and 
that unbroken combination, the big plume and the 
little cranium is still beheld. Xor is that all ; a strange 
law seems to be at work pushing some fact or principle 
farther along, so that the smaller the head the bigger 
always is the plume! 

When a boy we saw a third lieutenant bedecked 
with gold lace, brass buttons, and a plumed hat. whom 
we thought to be a general. A few minutes afterward 
we had our attention called to a person dressed in a 
plain gray suit, who brought an armful of wood from 
the porch of the hotel and threw it upon the fire in the 
office, and was told that this man commanded twenty 
thousand cavalry, and his name was N. B. Forrest. 

The marshals of France used to fairly glitter with 
their decorations and orders, and looked about their 
occiputs like the feathery top of a palm tree; but the 
man greater than them all put together, stood in their 
midst wearing a gray overcoat and a three-cornered 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 53 

hat that had not a single mark of ornament or 

description about it. 
We have a little girl at home who in preparing her 

Sunday school lesson, was asked, "How God made the 

world?" She dropped her eyes in reflection a moment, 

and then raising them with a bright expression, 

replied, "Nobody knows." 
There was a burst of laughter in the room over the 

answer for reasons that need not be given. 

After visiting the ostrich farm we do not think that 

anybody with a pair of thoughtful eyes need to puzzle 
over the question, "Why did God make ostriches?" 
The answer might not have in it the unconscious wit 
of Josephine, but it would possess the merit of being 
more definite. Indeed, several replies could be given. 
One is that the ostrich is made to give a full length 
view of a being whose wealth is on the outside and not 
the inside. A second answer is that it is a picture of 
a person making up in dress what they lack in brains. 
A third definition is that it is an object lesson of a 
little head tolerated because of a richly-clothed body. 
A fourth explanation is that the beautiful, bushy, 
waving plumes and the diminutive cranium were put 
together that men might see and understand what is 
meant by the words, "the power of contrast." 



54 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



A PERSISTENT ORGAN GRINDER. 

W e recently heard of a gentleman who was attend- 
ing a picnic and heard "Sweet Marie" for the first time 
on a hand organ. He was so carried away with the 
melody that, taking the musician aside, he told him 
he would give him ten dollars not to change the tune, 
but play "Sweet Marie ,, all the rest of the afternoon. 
This was a financial windfall to the music box man, 
and was far more than he expected for the whole day, 
so he readily fell in with the proposition and straight- 
way persistently, pertinaciously and very contentedly 
made the woods and meadows ring with the strains 
relative to the excellencies and fascinations of the 
female called "Sweet Marie." 

Another gentleman present liked the piece well 
enough to begin with, but after the fifteenth or 
sixteenth rendering, it became somewhat monotonous, 
and he told the organ grinder that he would give him 
a dollar to change the tune. The musician simply 
smiled and shook his head, while he took a new and 
fresh turn on the same old melody. What was one 
dollar to ten dollars ! 

An hour later some young men who were in turn 
tired out by the same composition, made up a purse of 
five dollars and informed the organ grinder that the 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 55 

money was his if he would change the tune and not 
play "Sweet Marie" again on the ground. 

The only response the latest bidders received was a 
smiling negative shake of the head, while the crank- 
turner fixed his eyes with a far-away expression on a 
distant line of hills and pealed forth more praises 
about a party named Marie, who was said in the song 
to be of a saccharine nature. 

He not only had respect unto the recompense of the 
reward, but saw that all the other pay and profit 
offered him to discontinue, did not come anywhere 
near the original offer made him by the first gentle- 
man. Moreover, that same party, in anticipation of 
the very things which took place, told the organ 
grinder that no matter what emolument was extended 
him to be silent or change the theme, that he would 
still place his remuneration away beyond anything else 
which should be offered him. 

And so the grinder ground on. And while many 
fled from him, yet he endured the loneliness as seeing 
him who was invisible. Then he had the best of 
reasons to keep on with his melody. It was not only 
a lovely song, but he was certain of his pay, and this 
reward would be far ahead of all other offers made by 
threateners and bribers to stop. So he ground on! 
Behold we are in the midst of a parable. Is it not 



56 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



so that a number of God's people have obtained the 
blessing of full salvation which fills the heart with 
melody, and overflows the soul and lips with praises 
all the day. 

God's command to them is to stick to the tune. We 
are to praise the beauty of holiness. We are never to 
let up on the sweetness, blessedness and glory of 
entire sanctification. If we do this, our present and 
future reward shall be immeasurably and infinitely 
above all that time and sense and man and this whole 
world can give us. We are to pay no attention to 
threats and bribes to leave off, but must play on world 
without end. and to the ends of the world. 

It is not long before all such fully saved people are 
waited on with the request that they would change 
their tune or testimony. That it is too monotonous. 
That it wears on the feelings of many on the 
ecclesiastical grounds. 

Then comes the Briber. And some of the testifiers 
are promised very desirable and profitable things if 
they will vary or discontinue their everlasting affirma- 
tions about the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. 

The pay in some cases is increased, and stewardships, 
presiding elderships, general conference memberships, 
good fat salaries, fine appointments, the favor of Col. 
Masonic Lodge, Mrs. Grundy, Mrs. Dishrattler, and 



LIA'ING ILLUSTRATION'S 57 

the Church Powers that be, are all freely held forth, if 
the offending party will only shut uo about the Second 
Work of Grace. 

Some go down under the bribes, and changing the 
Tune List, arrange the Record and Regulator of the 
Organs of Speech so as to skip or leave out Holiness 
by the Blood or Sanctification by Faith. 

This song follows in order the one called Justifica- 
tion By Faith, but by the rearrangement spoken of, 
there is a big skip over the second to such pieces as 
"Hold the Fort," "Deeper Yet," "I Saw the Moonlight 
On My Mother's Grave," with a lot of other hymns 
sung to old-time love songs and popular ballads called 
"juanita," "Annie Laurie," "The Belle of the Mohawk 
Vale," and "Old Black Joe." 

The Sweet Marie of Full Salvation or Sanctification 
has been dropped from the Tune List. The Organ 
Grinder who once delighted us with his sermon or 
testimony on Holiness has been bought out. He turned 
from God's pay to the rewards of man. Unlike 
"Moses, who chose to suffer affliction with the people 
of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a 
season," this man esteemed the pleasures and treasures 
of this world far more desirable than bearing the 
reproach of Christ with only a distant Heaven for a 
reward, and that, too, at the end of a long life. 



m 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



There are others, thank God, like the man of our 
story who cannot be bought off or out. They stick 
to the declaration of Entire Sanctification by Faith in 
the Blood of Christ. 

They often have to render their song alone. Many 
leave their company who do not like the melody or 
tune, and especially its continuous character. 

But they remember the promise the Lord made them ; 
the pay that is to transcend the value of a thousand 
worlds like this. And so, because of the recompense 
of the reward, knowing it is sure, knowing that it will 
be unutterably beyond all that individuals, families, 
churches, communities, nations and the whole earth 
itself can do for them, they play on without a break— 
"Saved, sanctified and kept all the time! Glory to the 
Father, Glory to the Son, and Glory to the Holy 
Ghost forever, for a free, full and overflowing salva- 
tion r 

THE DEAD ENGINEER. 

Recently on a train in Missouri the conductor 
noticed that the cars were rushing at a fearful speed 
around curves, and through several small stations 
where they should have slackened speed and had not 
stopped at a place where a halt was required on the 
schedule. Hurrying through the smoking and baggage 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 59 

cars, and climbing over the tender, he saw the 
engineer sitting in the cab in his accustomed place 
with his hand on the throttle, while the fireman was 
shoveling in coal. Struck with the motionless figure 
before him, the conductor drew nearer rapidly and, 
looking around and into the face that was gazing 
through the window, saw that the man was 
dead! 

A dead man had been running the engine tor the 
last seventeen miles. The fireman, a raw recruit, and 
a thick-skulled fellow to boot, had in his attention 
to the furnace failed to observe the catastrophe; while 
the lifeless engineer, propped up by his seat and the 
wood and iron wall on either side, held his position, 
and looked like a living engineer with his hand on the 
throttle, and face fronting the window, and yet was a 
dead man all the while! 

\s we read the dispatch in the papers describing the 
above remarkable occurrence, the heart fairly sickened 
a, the mind made a swift application of the circum- 
stance to states and conditions of things as we see them 
here and there in the Field of Religious Work, and in 
the Church of God which we love. 

The horrible sight is still beheld in the land. It can 
be seen in the council chambers of the church, in the 
pew. and even at times in the pulpit. It is the spectacle 



SO 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



of a man with face at the window and hand on the 
throttle, and yet that man a corpse. The church 
machinery started years, and even centuries, ago, is 
rushing on with its load of freight and passengers, 
with a momentum received away back in the past, but 
the man in the cab is dead just the same. He him- 
self is carried on by something outside of himself. He 
is propped up by customs, rules and observances, and 
as he is swept through the Sabbaths many fail to ob- 
serve his lifelessness. The firemen, who shovel in the 
fuel to run the cause of God, deceived by the upright- 
ness of w T hat is merely an outward position; and the 
people in the church misled by a face turned to the 
front, and by a hand resting on the throttle of 
ecclesiastical power, dream not that a spiritually dead 
man is heading and guiding them in a swift rush to 
the eternal world. 

What a shock it was to the people on the train that 
day, when they discovered that a corpse had been 
running the train for nearly twenty miles. Their 
horror was simply indescribable. And what a 
consternation would fill the hearts of thousands of 
church members to-day, could they see what God 
sees, a backslider in the pulpit, a dead man in charge 
of immortal souls, piloting and directing them to the 
grave and the Judgment Bar of God. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 61 

When we read of ministers of the Gospel defending 
dancing, card-playing and theater-going, we think of 
the Dead Engineer. When we were recently told of a 
preacher who, to raise money for some church or 
religious purpose, rented a hall and had three negro 
fiddlers to play against each other, while he sat as 
the judge and decided as to the merits of the 
contestants - we thought again of the Dead 
Engineer. 

We wish our readers would order a little ten-cent 
pamphlet called "Dr. Starr and White Temple," and 
send it to men who correspond to the description given 
above. Mail it without comment, but pray much to 
God to send the message home. The train is so great, 
the passengers so many, their souls are so precious, 
and hell is so dreadful and eternity so long, that it is 
our duty to cry out. wave the danger signal, and do 
anything to stop the downward rush and avert the 
coming disaster. 

THE POWER OF KINDNESS. 

When the writer was a pastor in New Orleans, one 
of his stewards had a long, protracted sickness and 
finally died. His loss was generally regretted. The 
funeral was large, and floral offerings many and 



6* LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

beautiful. But one of the most touching things took 
place the night of the steward's death. 

The wife, bereaved and lonely, sat at a window 
opening upon a street, when her attention was called 
to the sobbing and crying of a boy out in the darkness. 
It was the voice of a lad who was the lamplighter for 
that part of the city. 

For months as he passed at nightfall on his rounds, 
Mr. M— , the steward, always had a pleasant and 
kind word for a child that no one else seemed to care 
for or remember. So now in grateful remembrance, 
each evening the lad would stop to ask how the in- 
valid was. And this night he suddenly saw the black 
crape on the door, when, leaning against a lamp post 
out in the gloom, he burst into tears. 

What a pity we could not get men like Mr. M 

elected chief superintendents of our churches, 
presidents of our theological colleges; and the little 
lamplighter to be a professor in one of our Bible 
Training Institutes. 

Surely if it was the love of God for us that has bound 
us to him in ties indissoluble and eternal, pulled us 
away from sin to righteousness, and from disobedience 
to godliness and well-doing; ought we not to try the 
effect of Christian love on enemies as well as friends, 
and see if it will not work as happily and blessedly in 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 63 

the melting of stony hearts and the redemption of 

human lives. , , . 

If we ask a man the secret of his devoted love to 
his mother, he might answer she is the best woman on 
earth But all of us know that she is not; and that 
oftentimes she is not a bit smart, nor socially or in- 
tellectually attractive. Even when she is gifted and 
as good as any other woman, back of the reason of 
the son's attachment is found her affection for him. 
She loved him and took care of him, nursed him in 
sickness, watched over him in helpless infancy, saved 
him from many a whipping from father and teacher, 
was a sympathetic listener to all his sorrows, trials 
and failures, believed in him when others doubted, and 
clung to him when others cast the prodigal off. These 
countless manifestations of devotion aside from every 
natural affection, has bound the child to the parent, 
and causes him to say "she is the best woman m the 
world." 

Let the reader try to account for the strong 
friendship he bears some very ordinary, unattractive 
individual. Or some uncle or aunt whom they knew 
in boyhood. Or some favorite sister now in heaven. 
And in every instance the secret will be found in their 
tenderness, affection, considerateness and repeated 
acts of kindness toward the party himself. 



64 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

Dickens speaks of the poor London waif saying with 
his dying breath about one who had befriended him : 
"He wos werry good to me." While the child to 
whom Bella Wilfur had been kind said in his feverish 
ramblings before death, "A kiss for the boofer lady." 

It looks to the writer as if God conquered individuals 
and is going to subdue the world itself by persistent 
kindness. But many professing to have His Spirit 
seem to be on another line altogether in their life, 
home, social circle, church or denominational work. 
They are on the track or road of persistent unkindness. 

Somehow no one seems to be in an ardor of gratitude 
and love over them when living; no one seems broken- 
hearted when they are dying; no one is heard crying 
out in the dark under the street lamp; no one buries 
their face in their hands and sheds scalding tears 
over the news of the death in the paper; and no 
one seems to miss or regret them when they are 
gone. 

Alas for it. They did not learn the great lesson that 
God taught us from the skies. They failed to see the 
marvellous power of Christ over men. They utterly 
overlooked the beautiful character he drew of "the 
Good Samaritan" who had a way of lifting up and 
helping wounded men whom he found by the road- 
side. They became instead by constant unkindness, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 65 

brother to the invisible and unmentioned man who 
wounded the traveler found by the Good Samaritan. 

The greatest tamer of human brutes was Captain 
Pillsbury of England. He did it by a persevering kind- 
ness. 

At a certain prison a most hopeless case was sent 
him. For months he could see no alteration. Finally 
the man, after four attempts to escape, broke his 
ankle in the last effort. Captain Pillsbury, always 
gentle and quiet, had the whitefaced, suffering but 
silent victim brought to his own pleasant, breeze- 
swept room, and laid on his spotless white bed. If 
he had been a gentleman of rank, he could not have 
been treated with greater tenderness and care. But 
a dark scowl on the brow and silent, thankless lips 
were all that the noble- hearted manager of the prison 
received. 

As the captain, after having, through physician, 
nurse, as well as himself, done all that could be done 
for the sufferer, turned to leave the room for the 
discharge of other duties in a distant part of the 
building, he observed an expression of pain on the 
prisoner's face. Glancing quickly towards the injured 
foot he saw that the nurse had not placed it in the 
best position for comfort. Stopping at once and 
retracing his steps, he took one of his own white 



86 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



pillows, and with the tenderness and gentleness of a 
mother, placed the poor broken limb in perfect ease 
on its soft, downy resting place. 

As the captain turned to the door to leave, there 
was a sudden burst of tears from the bed, and glancing 
around he saw the prisoner with one hand stretched 
out to him, and another covering his face streaming 
with tears, while he said with choking accents: 

"Forgive me, Captain, you shall have no more 
trouble with me after this." 

He was conquered by a steadfast kindness. 

Alas for the cutting and slashing; for the criticizing 
and faultfinding; for the judging and slandering, going 
on among those who are in the family of God, and 
even claim the possession of Perfect Love. What 
advancement can we hope for, and what results are 
certain to come if this be the spirit and conduct of 
God's children. 

Gladly would we see a spiritual university, so to 
speak, spring up and absorb the others, as Christ's 
kingdom is to permeate and fill all other kingdoms; 
this university being run on the line of persistent 

kindness. A man like Mr. M could be president, 

the little lamplighter a Dean of Theology, and all of 
us might enroll as students. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE YELLOW JACKETS. 

As we have observed, talked and prayed with 
broken-hearted men and women at the altar in our 
meetings all over the country, we have been reminded 
again and again of a circumstance happening in our 
early ministry. 

A gentleman mindful of the suffering of a poor 
family in the town where he resided, filled up a basket 
with substantials as well as comforts, and prevented 
by engagements from going himself, sent the relief 
by the hand of his nine year-old son. 

The home of want was not over four or five blocks 
distant, but the lad, according to human nature, and 
true to the proclivities of a boy, took a road which 
was three times as long, and that in its windings led 
by a yellow-jacket's nest in a clump of trees back of 
a large public building. 

He had been absent two hours longer than was 
necessary, when just as the father and mother were 
becoming exceedingly anxious, he put in a woe be- 
gone and almost unrecognizable appearance at the 
back door. He had met the enemy and he was theirs. 
He had been stung all over the face, his eyes were 
mere slits, while his countenance red and swollen 
from the poisonous stings and from weeping, presented 



68 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



such a spectacle that at first the parents scarcely knew 
their own child. 

His explanation to their wondering, sympathetic 
and shocked questions was, that he had heard of the 
yellow jackets, and thought he would go the long way 
around in order that he might see them. 

He saw them ! 

They also saw him ! 

From all indications the visited got more out of the 
visit than the visitor. The yellow jackets went on with 
their business as though they had never been disturbed, 
but the little boy was put out of both business and 
pleasure for days, his duty remained undischarged, his 
playmates laughed at him unmercifully, and he was 
mortified and heartbroken beyond words to de- 
scribe. 

This occurrence is but a figure or parable of the 
life of a sinner. God has a straight way for us to go 
in the discharge of the duties of life. If we would 
only follow the course he has marked out, his angels 
would be charged to keep us in our earthly march and 
journey, and what a happy, useful, blessed existence 
would be for us all. 

But there is the strangest disposition in the human 
heart to take the long, crooked road, hunt up the 
yellow jackets of sin, establish an acquaintance, and 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 69 

get a profound, bitter personal knowledge of the 
poisoning, maddening, defacing and destroying power 
of iniquity. 

It does not take the devil and sin long to use up a 
man. And the history of the case of the transgressor, 
is but a repetition of what took place with the boy, 
only on a larger, sadder and more ruinous scale. The 
duty of life of course is not discharged. The basket is 
not delivered. Hearts and lives have not been cheered, 
relieved, benefitted and blessed. While the wanderer 
himself, stung, poisoned, swollen, blinded, agonized, 
weeping presents himself to the eye of God and man 
at the back door of life, ruined and undone. 

Some of these character wrecks are beheld in charity 
hospitals, some at the jail and penitentiary, some loll 
on street corners, and sprawl around in livery stables 
and saloons, and many we find kneeling at the altar, 
and clinging to it as though washed up from the 
ocean of life and flung on a shore of hope and salva- 
tion. 

How changed they are since the hour they started 
out in the morning of their days! How they weep! 
How sorry they are that they did not go the straight 
road, and do what their Heavenly Father told them. 
How full of self-reproach that they have not delivered 
the basket, and have helped nobody. How full of 



TO 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



shame and sorrow that they have been stung and 
poisoned out of all moral shape and human semblance 
by the yellow jackets of hell. 

There is a story told of two pictures that were 
painted by a famous artist, one representing In- 
nocence in the person of a joyous-faced, smiling-lipped, 
open-eyed child, and the other symbolizing Guilt or 
Vice as seen in the dark-furrowed countenance and 
bestialized features of a hardened criminal. There 
were forty years between the painting of the pictures. 
And it is said that to the amazement of the artist, 
it was discovered that the same subject sat for both 
paintings! The two portraits proved to be taken of 
the same person! 

The yellow jackets of sin had gotten hold of the 
boy! 

THE THROUGH CAR. 

There are some cars on railroad trains that do not 
"go through", as they call it. So if we happen to be 
in such an one we are told by the conductor to move 
forward into the coach just ahead. Of course this 
change is not very pleasant after having settled one's 
self for a three hundred-mile ride. On the other hand, 
when a person gets on board, takes his seat and settles 
down comfortably near a window with paper or book, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 71 

it is quite agreeable to realize that there is to be no 
confusion, change and rush for another seat, but just 
as we are, we are to roll up smoothly and swiftly in 
due time to the Union Station of the city, to which we 
are going. We are on a through car. 

Regeneration is a car on the Gospel train to Heaven. 
Through that grace we can have the ticket and 
title to come to Heaven. But this is not a "through- 
car" grace. There is one ahead into which all heaven- 
ly passengers must enter who come into the city. It 
is called entire sanctification or perfect love. The 
apostle says, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness 
(the sanctification, R. V.), without which no man 

shall see the Lord." 

Whether the mass of Christians understand theology 
or not, they do feel that, regenerated as they are, 
something else must be done to and in them before 
they can see God. They know in their present con- 
dition, while they have a title to heaven through 
justification, yet they lack a certain fitness. They 
feel there is another car ahead. In their ignorance of 
the doctrine and experience they call it "Dying 
Grace," when that is not the name. The God-given 
title for the blessing is Holiness or Sanctification. 
In this we sweep into the Golden Paved City, and 
at Glorification depot. Passengers all along the 



73 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



Salvation Route are warned by the Holy Spirit, by 
conscience, by the pulpit and holy lives, by the 
heavenly conductor and earthly engineers, firemen 
and brakemen, that the car Regeneration does not go 
through, that all passengers must "go on unto Per- 
fection" — must be "sanctified wholly" — in other words, 
get on the through car just ahead. 

Some Christians do not attend to this until almost 
in the suburbs of heaven. Some get the information 
early after boarding the Salvation train, make the 
change at a place called Kadesh Barnea, and settle 
down with clear brows and smiling lips to a life of 
real religious enjoyment and usefulness. 

The writer traveled for fourteen years in the 
Regeneration coach. There was much getting on and 
off this conveyance by many, together with irregularity 
of meals and other discomforts we cannot now 
mention. One day a servant of God stood in the 
door and cried out that there was a better car or 
experience ahead, and it went through to Heaven 
without change or stop. He furthermore said that 
meals could be had at all hours, and there was no 
smoking room allowed. He said other things that 
were so grateful and blessed to the heart that we 
immediately arose, took up the whole cross, left our 
reputation on the seat, and went forward into the 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 78 

beautiful through car of Full Salvation. There we 
are, thank God, at this very hour. 

Every day we go to the door and call to the 
passengers who will hear us, and tell them of the 
loveliness, comfort and excellence of the forward 
coach. We tell them that they had better change 
now than wait for the confusion which results when 
the dark river of Death is reached. 

Some will not hear, being absorbed in the study of 
conference minutes, general statistics, college com- 
mencement sermons and Chautauqua lectures. But 
others heed, and numbers are entering and taking 
possession, with smiles, holy laughter, and shouts of 
joy. 

Meantime, while the company increases, and full 
salvation songs and testimony float through the 
window, the train thunders along, and we all know 
that it will not be a great while before we will be at 
home at last and stand filled with endless life, thrilled 
with immortal joy, and forever blessed and satisfied in 
the presence of the King. 

EFFECT OF A CHANT. 

In a certain California city I attended one morning 
a Congregational church. In addition to a capital 
sermon that edified the head and blessed the heart I 



74 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



was much moved at one of their features of worship. 
The pastor and congregation read alternately through 
a chapter in the Word of God. While doing so the 
organ played softly a touching accompaniment. 

In another California city I went to service in what 
was called a High church. The building was con- 
structed in the form of a cross, so that the choir and 
the congregation sitting in the transepts or arms of 
the cross could not be seen. The service began with 
distant singing which came nearer and nearer and 
finally materialized before our sight in the persons of 
twenty berobed boys, two surpliced curates and 
the Rector also in white bringing up the rear. They 
marched two by two, the first lad carrying a large 
crucifix. Farther on in the service while the Rector 
was reading the Ten Commandments and the people 
were responding the invisible organ kept playing a 
faint, far-away and most touching strain. As I listened 
to the Commandments and thought how men had 
broken them and how they were still being violated, 
that plaintive air was in strange sweet keeping with the 
hour. The effect on the heart was to confirm it in 
the resolve that was being murmured all over the 
house "Help us to keep this thy law, O Lord, and 
write all these thy laws upon our hearts, we beseech 
thee." 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 75 

At the conclusion of the service the uniformed choir 
of boys and curates moved away singing while the 
congregation remained standing awaiting the benedic- 
tion, and listening meanwhile to the lessening strains 
of the closing hymn as the singers disappeared down 
the transept into remote corridors and halls of the 
great cathedral building. 

Somehow we recalled the angel song over the fields 
of Bethlehem, the singers vanishing in the sky, while 
the melody died away in the night over the slumber- 
ing homes of Judea. 

And then we thought of the Church at the Last 
Day caught away from the doomed world, and ascend- 
ing with rapturous hymns of praise the steep blue 
height of the heavens on their upward way to the 
soul's eternal home, the beautiful City of God. 

How glad the singers will be, for their toil is over, 
pain is no more, and sorrow ended forever. And 
yet how heart-breakingly that same glad song will 
fall on the forsaken desolated earth. The world is 
left at last to itself. While the Church which strove 
so long to save, and to bless it in ten thousand ways 
disappears singing in the distant sky. 

As I walked away from the Sanctuary of God that 
morning with the congregation, the song and sing- 
ers taken from us, and the hard dry pitiless streets 



76 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

left us, I could not keep from thinking of the vanish- 
ing angels over Bethlehem, and the Church of God 
singing and disappearing in the heavens at the Last 
Day. 

But one of the chanted responses followed me as I 
walked away, as I pray it may sing itself into the soul 
and abide in the memory of all — 

"Help us to keep this thy commandment, O Lord, 
and write all these thy laws upon our hearts, we be- 
seech thee." 

THE BACKSLIDDEN TENDER. 

A delay of a couple of hours took place in Georgia 
as we were coming on to Kansas. There was a sud- 
den stoppage of our train, when, looking out, we saw 
an engine in trouble just ahead of us. It was a regu- 
lar case of railroad backsliding. The tender was off 
and badly off. It was not a sidetracked case, but a 
derailed condition. 

Services were immediately held in behalf of the err- 
ing one. There were no chairs or pews for the peo- 
ple, as we were in a field ; so many stood. The inter- 
est was deep. The Brothers Brakemen were there 
helping all they could, putting props and inclined 
planes under Brother Tender in order to get him back. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS ^ 

Brother Fireman shoveled in the coal to get up more 
st eam and Rev. Mr. Engineer 

at times shrieks did his best to shove Bro. Tender 
back on the track of safety and duty. The congrega- 
tion constantly increased; people came from a gre* 
distance; the interest of the meetmg stead y grew, 
men whooped and jumped around; and the oldest 
"habitants say they never saw anything to compare 

Anally, after many backsets and failures and after 
mat opposition from Judge Crossfe, Colonel Mud 
and Mrs Sand, the Rev. Dr. Engineer threw open Ins 
lottle, put on al, steam, and, assisted by hrs smger 
Mr. Fir man, and the Brakemen Brothers, pushed oki 
Bro Tender up, and clear through and safely on the 
.rib The first thing Bro. Tender did was 
r^^hBro.BoxCarfronrwho.hehadvfo- 

„«ly parted; and when he coupled on to h.m, tt sen 
a movement that was felt all along the hue unttl ^ 

ttuck old Genera, Caboose and brought ,m tn to * 
path of duty and activity wth the rest of tab™* 
L though at first he was far away from the meet 
took no interest in it, and looked for awhde as rf 

Itit n could or would move him. But al. saw h.m 

and so he came along al, right, with his flags flymg. In 



78 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

fact, everybody got through. Everybody felt good. 
And the oldest inhabitant— etc., etc., etc. 

The reader must not be surprised at the allegory 
above with its vivid style; the writer has been reading 
lately some reports or letters from the "Field," and 
has been affected, if not inoculated, somewhat by the 
aforesaid epistolary fashion. 

By the way we are becoming more and more inter- 
ested in that mysterious personage called "The Old- 
est Inhabitant." We heard of him when a boy, and 
he was very old then, and yet he is still living. We 
would like so much to see him. His photograph would 
be such a valuable possession. How lonely the old 
brother must feel. All his friends and kindred must 
have passed away by this time and he is only living 
from a strict sense of duty, and that solitary task is 
to tell the evangelist that his meeting is the greatest 
that has ever been known in all that part of the coun- 
try. 

Precious old man ! It may be the "Old Man" after 
all. Or, it may be that he is so old he has forgot- 
ten past meetings with other dates, personages and 
numerical figures. Or, it may be that "The Oldest 
Inhabitant" is the writer of the report or bulletin 
itself. So the mystery thickens. Still the old gentle- 
man is held in high regard; and, judging from numer- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 79 

ous letters from the field, we cannot get along with- 
out him. No magistrate in the court, no timekeeper 
in races, can surpass him in dignity of person and 
influence in decision. We have no recollection of ever 
having quoted him in any of our many letters in the 
past. But we meant no disrespect to him by this 
silence. We have been taught from childhood to honor 
the gray head. But we plainly see our mistake in pre- 
vious reports. Instead of saying what our opinion was 
about our various meetings, we should have hunted 
up the oldest inhabitant and allowed him to speak. 
And though he might be laboring under such trifling 
infirmities as a wandering mind, failing sight and be 
stone deaf at that, yet the paragraph would read just 
as well in print to the uninitiated public, to-wit: that 
he, the oldest inhabitant, did not remember to have 
ever seen or heard anything, in all the country, that 
surpassed the present meeting in the singing, in the 
praying, in the shouting, in the preaching, and in all 
the particular, general, and combined results. 

And it must be so, for he has been saying the same 
thing for many years. Nor is that all, for it is going 
to be so next year. Even now the oldest inhabitant 
is getting his bulletin ready for the camps of next 
summer. Of course this constant wonderful advance- 
ment over all other preceding preaching and laboring 



80 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



in the different camp grounds leads to some honest 
questioning and genuine embarrassment, but we have 
nothing to do with such grave difficulties and 
embarrassments — we are dealing with_ the oldest 
inhabitant. 

A SETTLING SENTENCE. 

We once knew a preacher who had the most expedi 
tious way of silencing the tongue of criticism, gossip 
and detraction in his presence that we ever beheld. 
It was the utterance of a simple sentence of six or 
seven words; but short and simple as was the speech, 
we never knew it to fail. 

One day several preachers were discussing an absent 
ministerial brother, and were reflecting on his lack of 
judgment, and mentioned several of his mistakes and 
blunders. 

The brother with the aforesaid quieting sentence 
listened a few moments and then said, as if thinking 
aloud, "I am so glad I am perfect!" 

To this day we recall the embarrassment, physical 
squirming and uneasy laughs of those critics. The 
speaker was contemplating the ceiling and rubbing his 
chin, reflectively and approvingly, and appeared to 
have forgotten the brethren's presence. But he had 
not, and he knew that he had every one of them not 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 81 

only hooked and hung but strung, and even broiled. 

The brother, as the reader will see, made no attack 
on Christian Perfection, or Perfect Love, but was dis- 
claiming Human Perfection, which, in its complete- 
ness of resurrected body and glorified intellect, can 
only be attained in heaven. 

To change the figure, this speech was a favorite 
weapon with the brother, and it always brought down 
his game fluttering at his feet. 

No matter who criticized or what they began to 
judge and condemn in others— this man would simply 
say, "Thank God I am perfect," and one could almost 
hear the Goliaths tremble and fall with a crash before 
that smooth pebble aimed at the head. 

Sometimes there would be loud laughs, but they 
were uneasy in spite of their noisiness, and we never 
knew it to fail that the criticizing stopped then and 
there. 

One effect of the utterance was to bring up to mem- 
ory at once in the minds of the critics and judges some 
most glaring inconsistencies of their own, with blun- 
ders and mistakes by the score. The convicting, silenc- 
ing influence of such remembrances suddenly brought 
up, we need no argument here to prove. 

It was by this very power that Christ utterly lock- 
jawed the condemners of the guilty woman. "He 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



who is without sin among you, let him first cast a 
stone." The Bible says that, convicted in their con- 
science, they all went out, from the oldest to the 
youngest. 

So, leaving out the actual sin question, for all Chris- 
tians should keep the commandments of God; and 
coming to the matter of correct judgment, wise actions, 
treatment of people, conduct under certain trying cir- 
cumstances, let the man who never did a regrettable 
thing in this line stand up and show himself. And if, 
as we all know, he cannot thus arise and claim Human 
Perfection, why should lie be criticizing and con- 
demning others for failing where he himself has 
broken down. 

Thus it is that the simple sentences, "I'm so glad 
that I am perfect," "I never make a mistake," "I never 
made a blunder," "I am perfect," are rapid-fire gatling 
guns before which no man with any conscience or 
moral sensibility and memory can stand. 

Usually Christians condemn a weakness, not sin, 
in their brethren and sisters in most vigorous terms, 
while they have blemishes just as glaring, only they 
are different. The weaknesses are wonderfully scat- 
tered down the ranks ; no one man or woman has 
them all; and so the rattling fire of judgment we gen- 
erally hear in conversation and in the columns of 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 83 

religious papers, is discharged by persons with infirm- 
ities, at others who have defects. The brother with 
his failing (not a violation of one of the ten com- 
mandments) shoots at a brother who has a fault dif- 
ferent from his, who in turn fires away at another 
who possesses an imperfection distinct from both, and 
so the battle goes on. It is amusing to note an arbi- 
trary man condemn the ruling, domineering spirit in 
his brethren. It is smile-provoking to hearken to a 
gossiping individual protest against talkativeness in 
others. It is rich to hear a preacher warn younger, 
unmarried ministers about their attentions to the fair 
sex during a revival service, when he courted his own 
wife during a protracted meeting. 

A FOUNTAIN RUN DRY. 

On the main avenue is a kind of stone pagoda cov- 
ering a fountain; the pretty construction being the 
gift of a gentleman in the West to this city. His name 
is carved in large letters, with an added sentence that 
he gave this water supply to the community. The 
four sides of the granite structure bear the words, 
Faith— Hope— Charity— Temperance. 

It all looks well ; but the trouble is that something 
is the matter with the fountain. It has quit flowing. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



It is about the dryest looking object and place on the 
avenue. So in spite of the doctor's self-laudatory in- 
scription of 'This is the gift of Dr. So-and-So f and in 
face of the beautiful words. Faith. Hope, Charity, 
Temperance, the spring itself is dry. 

We at once thought of religiou- denominations which 
have arisen in the world and announced themselves 
and their creed as a great gift to a famishing world, 
and yet have run perfectly dry. They had inscriptions 
of panels of faith and doctrine that were higher sound- 
ing than the four words we have cited attention to: 
have announced a "fourfold/" and a fortyfold Gospel, 
but after that ran dry. 

We have seen churches with the stone inscription 
in front, 'The Church of the Redeemer,'" and yet 
nobody was ever redeemed within its walls. One in 
a certain great city of ours, is named "The Church of 
the Holy Innocent/" and yet no one ever obtains Holi- 
ness there, nor will they allow it to be preached : and 
as for "Innocence,' 3 one glimpse of the faces gathered 
in its walls would make the most gullible smile with 
derision at such a title applied to such an audience. 
The fountain has evidently run out of Holiness and 
Innocence. 

We have men both in past and present times who 
have, so to speak, announced themselves as the gift 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



85 



of Heaven to the children of men. In view of the 
assertions they made of themselves, and the general 
invitation they gave for everybody to come to them 
and drink, thy might as well have lifted up in full view 
the startling words, Wisdom, Knowledge, Infallibility, 
Orthodoxy; Perfect Pattern in All Things; and No 
One Else But Me. 

And yet all of us have seen these fountains run dry. 
We have even marked the words, Third Blessing; 
Casting Out Devils ; the Glory Blessing; and Tongues, 
lifted up conspicuously, boastfully and defiantly, and 
yet the Fountain, so-called, went dry. 

How thankful we are that God has opened up in 
this world for every thirsty, needy, sin-sick soul a 
Fountain that never ceases to flow— it never runs dry. 
How men disappointed in institutions, brotherhoods, 
denominations and everything of human kind and 
character have turned to Jesus for deliverance, cleans- 
ing, satisfaction, happiness and blessedness, and never 
a single time have been disappointed. 

The doctor's four words are really best understood, 
and generally experienced and practically lived, when 
the Fountain Christ Jesus is opened up in the heart. 
What a Faith we have now! What Hope for people 
and the cause of Truth! What Temperance in the 
very best and fullest sense of the word, in spirit, 



36 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



speech, conduct, as well as life habits! And what 
Charity that is not puffed up, is not easily provoked, 
thinketh no evil, but beareth all things, endureth all 
things and never faileth ! 

It takes the Living Water, Christ Himself, to bring 
the genuine experience and character into the life cov- 
ered by the words Faith, Hope, Temperance and Char- 
ity. So as we studied the four high-sounding phrases 
carved on the walls of the little stone pagoda or pa- 
vilion, and observed the dried-up water supply, we had 
to do some smiling. It was all so suggestive, so mutely 
eloquent, so much like a first-class parable, that there 
was nothing that anyone could do but smile, unless it 
should be the doctor when he hears his spring has 
ceased to flow; or thirsty people drawing near for 
refreshment, would find only a dusty basin and a 
rusty, silent, empty spout before them! 

THE ELEVATOR MAN. 

In our travels lately we have become indebted for 
some profitable suggestions and lessons to that indi- 
vidual in the hotel known as the Elevator Man. 

Sometimes this personage is a boy, and then we miss 
what we now refer to. The elevator of the hostelry 
we speak of has to be a middle-aged individual to rep- 
resent the spirit or spirits of which we write. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 87 

In the first place they are almost without exception 
gloomy men. and seem to be soured. This may be 
accounted tor in part by the confined atmosphere they 
breathe, the monotony of the service they perform, 
and the awkwardness, ignorance and unreasonableness 
of many of the passengers they have to deal with, year 
in and year out. in their long, narrow, vertical box 
called the elevator shaft. 

Then it must not be forgotten that they live an 
up and down life, and this must necessarily affect the 
spirits. And still again, in the true sense of the word, 
they never get anywhere. They are always coming 
back to the point from which they first started. This 
must in time produce a kind of mental gloom. 

Among our sad elevator friends we recently met 
one who, in addition to woe; that properly belong to 
his class, was very much burdened about the weather 
outside. 

Now, as he roomed in the hotel, and when he was 
not in the elevator was in bed. and hardly ever out 
doors, it seemed to us that he had a needless load 
on his spirit. 

But the worry was there on his mind and heart just 
the same. And no matter when we put foot in the 
little iron barred cage he would open up on us with 
a series of anxious questions about the weather, or 



88 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



indulge in a flow of lamentations over the state of 
things outside, if there happened to be rain, sleet, snow 
or mud. 

He would ask every one who entered the elevator 
"how the weather was doing now," with the ac- 
cent on the word "now," as if it was cutting 
up and misbehaving because he was not outside to 
regulate it. 

When told it was raining or snowing, he would 
groan and say he did not know what would become 
of us. He seemed to feel as if he was responsible for 
it all; and also dreaded a kind of general ruin if a 
change from present conditions did not speedily 
occur. 

When we would report that it was bright and sun- 
shiny without, he would sigh and say that he was con- 
fident it would not last long. That he never knew it 
to fail, that if things cleared up at that time of the day 
or the month, they would not stay cleared up, but we 
would have an awful spell of weather following. 

We soon saw that there was no use in trying to 
cheer this Doubting Thomas, this Hervey's Medita- 
tion Among the Tombs kind of man. But he did us 
good, in that he furnished a type and illustration of a 
lot of people who are worrying themselves and every- 
body else to death, about things which they never did, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 89 

never originated or brought about, are powerless to 
remedv or change, and coneerning which things God 
has never dreamed of holding them responsible. 

There are some conditions of life that can no more 
be altered bv our will and way than the weather itself. 
It takes the almighty hand of Him who controls winds, 
waves and clouds to make the transformations we 
crave to see. 

Meantime our business is in the elevator. W e are 
to help everybody we can to reach higher floors and 
the upper story itself in Heaver, God will see to the 
material and spiritual realm outside. 

One day if we are faithful ; if we have made many 
trips helping others and stood to our post, without 
getting soured with the passengers, and jumping our 
job ; we will be called to the window of the Observa- 
tory, and there looking up we will behold a carriage 
and horses of fire coming for us. We will step m 
with tears of grateful joy; a happy, restful smile will 
steal over the dying face, and suddenly we will be 
caught up above all kinds of earthly weather, and find 
ourselves at home and at rest in a country where the 
flowers bloom forever and the sun is always bright. 



90 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE RIVER JIM. 

While out in the Northwest we made a very inter- 
esting new acquaintance. It was not a person, but a 
thing. It is the River Jim. 

This remarkable stream is twelve hundred miles 
long, and is not navigable in all that tremendous length 
a single yard ! 

This would indicate that Brother or Mister Jim is 
somewhat shallow! In addition to this, Jim is not 
broad ! You can get across him so soon— oh, so very 
soon. No, he is not broad. 

Now, just to think of the Jim going so far, passing 
through so much territory, seeing so many people, 
touching numerous localities, meandering around a 
distance equal to that between New Orleans and Chi- 
cago, or between St. Louis and New York— and yet 
in all that great length perfectly unnavigable from 
beginning to end. Jim is a complete failure as to 
Commerce. 

I say plain Jim, for I have lost respect, in fact, have 
become disgusted with my new acquaintance, and so 
dropping his baptismal name, say Jim, for short. 

This same Jim is a failure in Manufacture as well 
as commerce, for he has not volume or force enough 
to turn a wheel or run a mill of any kind. There is 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 91 

not enough of him to make a "falls," and so he just 
meanders about everywhere, going to all the meetings, 
doing nothing, and in the true sense of the word get- 
ting nowhere. 

The River Jim is to be at the meeting in June. It 
is this stream which curves and winds around the City 
Park of Elms, where the Camp is to be held. So all 
who attend next June will see Jim. 

When we first saw "The Jim," and was told of his 
character and his life peculiarities, and how long he 
was and how far he went, and how little he did ; and, 
in fact, that he was such a failure in what is expected 
of a river, that he didn't amount to a hill of beans— we 
were much moved. We realized that we had met with 
an old acquaintance in the West whom we had known 
intimately in the East, as well as in the North and 
South. We could have wept. We came near col- 
lapsing with a variety of emotions which we have not 
time to mention much less enlarge upon. 

However, we felt" like telling the brethren they had 
introduced us by mistake to an old friend. And we 
said in confidence to the River Jim that we had seen 
his family lately, and a whole lot of his' kin folks 
whom we found almost everywhere scattered on both 
sides of the Mason and Dixon line. 

Knowing how it would gratify him, we informed 



92 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

him that a number of his relatives had been elected 
bishops, and editors of our church papers, quite a 
number were presiding elders, and still others occu- 
pied what were called the leading pulpits of the land. 
That also many of his kindred were principal mem- 
bers of the church to which they belonged, and held 
prominent positions wherever we had met them. 

Moreover, we told him that the family resemblance 
was so striking that anybody could see that they were 
his near and dear relations. That like him they were 
far from being broad, were unmistakably shallow, 
could not float the Old Ship of Zion or any craft that 
had deep drawing, genuine salvation in it. That the 
resemblance still continued in that they were so big 
in one respect and so little in another; that in spite of 
all their going around they got nowhere, and in place 
of being something and doing something, they were 
exactly like him in doing nothing and being good for 
nothing. 

Of course we did not stay long in the neighborhood 

of the River Jim when we said this. We went back 

to the hotel. Some would think this was a wise and 

safe step with us, that the River Jim might have 

become offended and might have taken vengeance on 

us. But no! there was no danger. Jim cannot hurt 
anybody. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 93 

p_ s_We have been informed since penning the 
above that the River Jim is not only a failure in the 
commerce and manufacture point of view, but is 
equally a non-success and break-down in meeting the 
demands of Agriculture. There is not enough of our 
meandering friend to irrigate the fields around him. 
He has no fullness of blessing. He has nothing to 
spare. The least effort put forth to make him over- 
flow and bless the surrounding country., seems to run 
him dry. He has just enough experience to go around 
and see how others are prospering and getting along; 
but he has nothing himself to give or to spare. He 
says he is moving on in his poor weak way, and 
hopes that he will hold out faithful to the end. He 
adds the touching request, "Pray for me." 

Jim will be at the camp meeting in June ; but all the 
other camps in the land will have delegations from 
and representatives of the Jim family. Look out for 
this interesting household and connections: City Jim, 
Country Jim, Preacher Jim, Professor Jim, Ragged 
Jim, and Dandy Jim, Church Jim and Come-Out Jim, 
as well as the River Jim will all be at the camp meet- 
ings this summer. 

Pray for the camp meetings! 



94 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE SKYSCRAPERS. 

I obained some lessons from observing the sky- 
scrapers in New York City. 

As they rise from a height of twenty to forty stories, 
it is marvellous how the other buildings in the neigh- 
borhood shrink into insignificance. Tenements that six 
and seven stories high were considered gigantic a few 
years ago, but now in the vicinity and presence of the 
lofty modern structures look as pigmies would appear 
standing in a group of giants. 

Of course they were great when there was nothing 
greater around, but when something really large and 
lofty came on the scene, how little these formerly 
imposing houses now seem. 

With the parable in brick, iron and stone before us, 
I had at once the explanation why some pastors and 
evangelists are regarded as great in certain remote 
districts and sections of the country. The people are 
immovably convinced that these men are big, and that 
there are none in pulpit and on platform that are 
greater. 

The explanation is that they themselves never saw 
greater men. There are immeasurably superior think- 
ers, reasoners and speakers, but not having beheld 
thern in their village and settlement, they are to that 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



^5 



community as though they were not, had never been, 
and could never be. 

It is really amusing to behold these ~ame overesti- 
mated individuals at a great camp, or in a General Con- 
ference, where real pulpit giants are present. The sev- 
eral story building finds itself in company with a 
number of forty-story intellects; men whose heads 
touch the sky, whose minds, souls and lives are full 
of great purposes, mighty activities and tremendous 
achievements. We stand amazed at their loftiness of 
character ; the upper floors of thought ; every mental 
room full, and the elevators going all the time. The 
cottage is in the presence of a neighborhood of sky- 
scrapers ! 

My, how little some of us look at such a time ! And 
how small some of us feel ! 

Then how glad such individuals are to be overlooked 
on such occasions. Not one, in spite of his fame in 
Persimmonville, would dare to cross swords with one 
of the polemical giants of the great ecclesiastical gath- 
ering. 

A brim or goggle-eye perch is a whale among min- 
nows, but is itself less than a sardine when thrown 
among whales. And so the pulpit wonder of Raccoon 
Hollow, and O'Possum Bend is simply nowhere in 
the crowded camp meetings of two hundred pastors 



c6 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



and preachers; or at a mighty assembly where the 
greatest thinkers, writers and speakers of Christendom 
have been drawn from all the nations. 

The overrated brother is all the more content to be 
unnoticed, and not called on to preach at the camp or 
conference, inasmuch as the sermons on which he got 
his fame in Persimmonville and Goose Pond P. O. 
were taken from some of the leading preachers and 
evangelists at different camp grounds. In fact he 
took five from one evangelist at a single camp ground. 
"Alas, Master, it was borrowed!" 

So it was with a smile I contemplated the five and 
six-story buildings in New York City and noticed how 
small they appeared in the midst of the Skyscraper 
District. They used to look big, but now seem to be 
shrinking in on themselves in the presence of the 
really great and colossal in architecture. 

And the smile deepens when we see the same thing 
reproduced in life, and observe how the self-inflated, 
and the self-overvalued shrink and fade when thrown 
in the company of those who tower far above them 
intellectually and spiritually. 

Just so Ave have seen the Moon put on a sickly smile 
and take a back seat in the West, when the Sun, from 
whom it borrowed all its light, appeared in its strength 
and majesty on the platform in the East. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



8? 



FACIAL LYING. 

We have been treated lately to a sight of facial 
lying which confirms more than ever the Bible state- 
ments concerning this fearful phase of depravity and 
result of the fall. 

Just as the sin of profanity can be indulged in with- 
out the use of the tongue, and the slap of a child, the 
kicking of a domestic pet, and the slam of a door, 
and behold the curse has been given which the mouth 
was ashamed or afraid to utter; so lying is not at all 
dependent upon the lips and other organs of speech. 
Men can tell falsehoods by an uplifted hand in a reli- 
gious meeting, by a jump, by a forced shout, and by 
positions of the head and expressions of the face. 

Once while preaching our eyes fell suddenly on a 
young man who, resting his chin on the top of the 
pew in front of him, was making the most extraordi- 
nary grimaces to excite the amusement of some un- 
godly boys and girls around him. He had not calcu- 
lated on a sudden turn we made in the pulpit, and by 
which our eyes fell full upon the writhing countenance 
before us. Like a flash he tried to wipe off the harle- 
quin and clown look as one would figures from a slate 
with a wet sponge, and assume the appearance of 
thoughtfulness, seriousness, devotion and even piety. 



98 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



But it was too great a leap from the physiognomy of 
a buffoon to the rapt features and uplifted gaze of a 
Titian's angel, and the youth was too young, and had 
not had sufficient experience; and so while it was an 
awful facial lie he tried to tell, and he did his best to 
deceive, yet the hypocrisy was too evident, the men- 
dacity too transparent, and the effort to fool and hood- 
wink us was an inglorious failure. He was caught so 
to speak in his falsehood, — for still be it remembered 
that he falsified. And he lied with his face. 

We know a presiding elder who from special atten- 
tion to facial lines, gravity of manner, a steady gaze 
upon the preacher in the pulpit, and the use of a large 
yellow, bone-handled walking stick did some of the 
tallest lying that was ever entered in the Great Ledger 
Lie Book that will be brought out on the Day of 
Judgment. This volume is one of the "Other Books" 
mentioned in the Bible, and which will be opened. 

The position in the audience of this man, seated 
in a nest of preachers who were tobacco users and 
Masons like himself, was one of the most profound 
outward respect. His eyes never left the face of the 
speaker in the pulpit. His face bore the appearance of 
interest, and agreement with the preacher; but with 
the large handle of his walking cane hiding his mouth, 
and pressing his lips a little to one side, he kept up 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



a merciless criticism, ridicule and faultfinding of the 
messenger of Christ in the pulpit to those of his crowd 
seated on his right hand, and so distinctly that others 
not in his following heard the bitter, cruel speeches 
and could hardly contain their indignation. Here was 
facial lying with a vengeance. 

Recently we were treated to another sight of this 
most sickening spectacle. This time it was an old, 
gray-headed member of the church. He sat with his 
wife, who was also whitehaired, on the front pew, and 
paid apparently the most respectful attention to the 
preacher. But as the sermon cut across his cranky, 
fanatical and false doctrinal views, he would take 
advantage of the preacher's movement in the pulpit, 
and with his head immovable, and face turned to the 
speaker as if held spellbound, he would twist his 
mouth around toward his wife, and pour out the most 
venomous criticisms. In this unnatural mode of 
articulation the words had necessarily to be pro- 
pelled with unusual force, and so, all unwittingly to 
himself, his tirade could be heard by people back of 
him in the next pew. Here was the double mind in- 
deed. Here was division between the head and heart, 
and between the face above and the mouth below. On 
which side of the line did the man really live? If the 
Day of Judgment had suddenly come, as he believed 



100 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

and said it was near ; what kind of person would the 
Lord have found! With his head and face he was 
looking like the aged Simeon in the Temple, and with 
his lips and tongue he was playing the slanderous, 
gossipy, tell-tale Doeg in the Sanctuary. With all his 
appearance of brotherly regard, friendly interest, unity 
of heart and spirit of worship, he was an enemy in the 
camp. He, claiming to have the truth, and be filled 
with Him who said, "I am the truth," and was too 
religious to wear a necktie and too holy to eat pork, 
lied with his head and face for a whole hour at a time. 

Truly the Lord knew what he said when he inspired 
the words, "The heart is deceitful above all things — 
who can know it?" 

THE FAITHFUL ONE. 

Paul found and mentions him in his epistle to Tim- 
othy. The apostle had become old in the service of 
Christ; the scourgings and stonings and shipwrecks 
and mental anxieties of the past had told upon him, 
and he was now Paul the aged. Moreover, at this 
time he was confined in Rome and daily expecting to 
be executed; so he was Paul the prisoner; and he was 
Paul the poor, as is seen in his writing for that far- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



101 



away cloak at Troas ; and he was Paul the lonely and 
forsaken. 

If ever he needed friends and Christian companion- 
ship it was now; yet Demas, Titus, Crescens and Mark 
are all gone, he is entirely forsaken save by one per- 
son, and that the faithful Luke. So he writes to Tim- 
othy, "Only Luke is with me," 

How much of tenderness, devotion, loyalty and 
faithfulness is conveyed in this expression. Hundreds 
whom the apostle led to Christ are dead and gone; 
hundreds more in distant active fields of labor, have 
forgotten him ; but with the needy aged prisoner lin- 
gers one who proposes to stand by him until the last. 

Every true evangelist makes the acquaintance of 
"the faithful one" if he preaches a true and fearless 
gospel. As conviction takes hold of the people, and 
Satan arouses antagonism, and the heart is sickened 
at beholding the spectacle of weakening and deserting 
members ; like a beautiful soul-cheering gleam of light 
from a stormy sky is to the eye, so to the lonely pro- 
claimer of the gospel is the sight of a faithful Luke 
who, separating himself from the crowd of opposers, 
declares with a warm grasp of the hand that he is 
with the messenger of God, and in His name bids him 
Godspeed, and that he will stand by him. 

The pastor of many a church gets acquainted with 



102 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

this faithful character. He is not seen and recog- 
nized at first, but gets to be well known later. The 
rule is that it is not Luke who meets you at the train, 
or is first at the parsonage to greet you. Demas the 
forsaker, and Mark the deserter are generally on the 
welcoming committee. Luke, the calm-browed, level- 
headed and true-hearted one, comes on the scene gen- 
erally when Demas has deserted the standard, Mark 
is running, and Crescens and Titus find it convenient 
to be in Galatia and Dalmatia. 

The faithful one is seen again in the social circle. 
We remember a gentleman who suddenly be- 
came the target of numerous arrows of scandal. 
The most dreadful things were said about him, and 
numbers of his old-time friends became cold and 
fell away. His suffering was intense and he became 
sad-looking and haggard under the general and pitiless 
assault. In the midst of it all, Luke appeared in the 
person of a friend who, learning of the situation in a 
distant city, went immediately to the telegraph office 
and sent the following message flying over the wires 
to the victim : "I still believe in you." 

A lady was present when the dispatch was received 
and read. She said the slandered man's eyes filled 
with tears, while his lips tremulously uttered "God 
bless him." From that moment he became a stronger 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



103 



man, and lived, through, and lived down, all the false 
reports. 

A merchant said that he went home to tell his 
wife the crushing news that he was a ruined man 
financially, and that his summer friends had, as usual 
in such cases, forsaken him. He said his wife had 
been like a hothouse flower, and spent most of her 
time in reading light literature and lolling on the sofa. 
He was afraid that the tidings would break her heart, 
and so communicated the information in a very grad- 
ual and gentle way. When he concluded, however, 
with the words literally wrung out of him, "X have 
lost all," to his amazement she arose and threw her 
arms around him and said: 

"No, my love— not all— you have me. I will stand 
by you, and make up for the loss." 

Most nobly he said she had fulfilled those words, 
Their first utterance had made him happy, but their 
complete reproduction in deeds had brought much 
deeper joy. In talking about it afterwards he said: 
"I lost a fortune, but gained another far more precious 
and satisfying.'' 

We once knew a lady who had lost most of her chil- 
dren and all of her property. Her two sons and one 
surviving daughter were all happily married and 
absorbed in their own homes and duties. She was 



104 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



nearing three score and ten, and used to go about 
with a granddaughter of twelve years of age, who 
was her inseparable companion. 

We often saw them together on the streets, pre- 
senting such a strange partnership of old age and 
childhood, of weakness and budding strength, of gray- 
haired sorrow and childhood's sunny-locked gladness 
and brightness, that the sight always melted the heart 
and filled the eyes with tears. 

All the more pathetic was the thought that in this 
stripped and smitten life, when friends were gone anu 
children neglectful and forgetful, the faithful Luke 
was personated in a little, fragile but not the less 
devoted grandchild. 

Thank God for the faithful Luke. 

SHIFTING BLAME. 

It begins very early indeed with the human family 
as we can see by studying the children. Only let 
there be a row or rumpus or some kind of misdeed 
among them, and then observe the father and mother 
step into the room to find out the cause of the trouble, 
and he will soon discover that he needs not only 
Pinkerton's Detective Agency, but a large number of 
Le Cocqs and Sherlock Holmes in order to find out 
who is the guilty one. From the noise that preceded 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



105 



the father's entrance into the apartment, where the 
commotion began, it seemed that a number of small 
Bengal tigers had gotten loose and were after each 
other; but as the paternal or maternal voice and foot 
was heard approaching, and the door opened, behold 
a little flock of peaceful, innocent looking lambs. 

"O no! It wasn't me, mamma! I was just stand- 
ing here doing nothing at all, papa! It was Brother 
John, or Sister Jennie that did this or that, and thus 
and so and the other! I told them not to do it! It 
was they who did it! I didn't do a single solitary 
thing! I was just standing here." 

And behold likewise spake they all after this fash- 
ion. The only variety in the monotonous humbug- 
gery of the scene is the change heard in names. Jim- 
mie said it was Johnnie, Johnnie laid the blame on 
Jennie, Jennie shifted it to Jimmie. As for the rest 
of this piece of family disturbance, each one was just 
standing there doing nothing; in fact, they had not 
done a single thing but just "stand there." 

As we have brooded over these domestic scenes we 
have been struck every time with the marvellous- 
similarity to the occurrence in the Garden of Eden. 
Adam said it was Eve, Eve laid it off on the Serpent, 
and so they tossed the ball of culpability from one 
to the other. 



106 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

Track this same practice of shifting blame into the 
realms of gross sin. and who will be able to get the 
exact truth if human judgment is based on the word 
of simply one of the parties. The woman throws the 
guilt on the man. the man casts it back on the woman. 
Society as a rule sides with the first case,, but God 
pronounces that both are equally guilty. Excuse and 
argument and self-defense may abound and flow from 
lips -and pen, but towering high above all language of 
crimination and recrimination, are the facts, that temp- 
tation is not compulsion,, that every soul, be the per- 
son male or female, has a burglar proof door to the 
heart that neither man nor devil can break down, 
that this strange portal unlocks from the inside,, and 
so there can never be outward sin until there is in- 
ward consent. 

These immutable truths,, however, do not prevent the 
guilty from trying to cast the responsibility on other 
shoulders, though the very self-defense does not agree 
with actual occurrence, and contradicts the -greater 
facts of our moral and spiritual constitution. 

Who is going to get the reality and certainty of the 
matter in these cases? Will we obtain it by listening to 
one party to the exclusion of the other? Behold their 
histories contradict. The man declares that the fault 
lies with the woman, the woman as warmly affirms 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



107 



the whole difficulty rests with the man. Both are 
snow white innocent lambs. Neither one had said or 
done a single solitary thing out of the way. He or 
she was just standing there with their snowy wings 
folded, a crown upon their foreheads, and a harp within 
their hands! The other party raised the rumpus! 

So the old Garden of Eden scene is continually be- 
ing 're-enacted before our eyes. We have only to lis- 
ten and we will hear it a dozen times a day in the 
domestic and social life ; or pick up the morning paper 
and there it is telegraphed, paragraphed, photographed 
and illustrated in every kind of mode and fashion. 
She killed him, but she was not to blame. He left 
her, but he was not to blame. O, no, of coarse not! 
He was just standing there doing nothing, and she 
was just standing there and had not done a single 
solitary thing. They were both lambs; would not 
have known a tiger if they had seen it. In view of 
their innocence and gentleness and general lovability, 
the Garden of Eden might be remaining to this day 
so far as they are concerned. It was the other one 
who had made the mischief, and wiped out the Para- 
dise in the heart, home and social circle. They had 
nothing to do with it. Or they were led into it, or 
driven into it, and whether led or driven went in with 
a crown upon their foreheads and a harp within their 
hands ! 



108 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



And lo, as they tell the story that makes them 
lambs and everybody else wolves and lions, the frown 
is on their foreheads and a rolling pin is .in their 
hands. 

MISUNDERSTOOD. 

Two brothers, cousins of the writer, owned and 
ran a cotton plantation each. They were much laughed 
at and even condemned by a thoughtless public for 
their needless economy and even stinginess. They wore 
hats until the brim left the crown. Their shoes were 
half soled repeatedly and clothes patched many times. 
The dishes had occupied the same places so long, as 
to wear holes in the tablecloth corresponding to their 
sizes. The old colored servant knew where to deposit 
the bread, meat and vegetable platter according to 
the dimensions of the apertures. 

These two men never explained. And it was not 
for twelve or fifteen years that the public learned that 
a life sacrifice had been going on all this weary length 
of time, that should have commanded the highest 
admiration instead of the brutal laughter which had 
fallen from the jeering mouth. 

These two young men were very much devoted to 
their father, who had become involved in an unfortu- 
nate business speculation as well as note endorsement, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



109 



and his honor was at stake. His sons at once came 
to his rescue, and in the course of ten or twelve years 
paid the heavy debts, but did so by the bitter life 
struggles and severe economy we have mentioned. 
They accepted the false judgment of being close and 
stingy; being cheered all the while with the con- 
sciousness that they were acting nobly, and saving 
their father from a crushing dishonor and financial 



rum. 



In a Southern city a man who resided there was 
generally regarded and pronounced a miser, when his 
heart and life were diametrically opposite. 

He had been cast on the world as a poor ignorant 
boy, and had been made to know the bitterness and 
almost unexceptionable hopelessness of such a lot. 
He, however, through remarkable talent and energy, 
pulled through, and was known to be a maker and 
layer up of money. He dressed in the seediest of 
clothes and lived on the plainest of fare. And yet he 
possessed a fortune and was acquiring more. What 
could all this mean, thought the world, but that he 
was a miser! Do not misers all act this way? 

So the children threw rocks at him, and, taught by 
a mistaken public opinion, cried out "Miser!" 

And yet he was a philanthropist! Nor was that 
all. He was laying up money to educate and fit for 



110 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

Hie the children of the very city where they cast mis- 
siles at him. and called him miser! 

e have seen a statue of him in the same commun- 
ity, wuh children in a marble group looking u P to 
him and reaching to touch his outstretched hands 
and as we gazed we thought of the years that this' 
man had walked unknown, misunderstood and mis- 
judged in this very city, while the young people used 
their hands then to cast stones at their benefactor, 
who poorly dressed walked unrecognized in their 



streets. 



e one once laughed in our presence at the 
numped back of an old Southern lady. Others heard 
the laugh. Finally the circumstance came to her 
ears.^ Her eyes at once filled with tears, and she said 
to a mend of the writer: 

"I was once as straight as an arrow when a young 
lady: but I have raised not only my own children but 
three sets of grandchildren, and my constant stooping 
over them to meet their wants, began and completed 
the stoop in my figure which I now cannot help." 

The heart fairly ached as we heard of the speech, 
and thought of the unkmdncss and injustice of peo- 
ple quick to judge, ridicule and condemn in cases 
where they know literally nothing about the matter. 
The word -Misunderstood" would make the truest 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



111 



of epitaphs on the tombstones of a company of people 
who have lived in every country, and died unknown 
in every age of the world. 

THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD. 

In Congress a few years ago, a speaker desired that 
a certain passage from the Bible should be read aloud 
by the clerk. An eye witness of the occurrence 
affirmed, that prior to this request there was the mur- 
mur going on peculiar to large assemblies of men, 
various individuals moving about, lead pencils and 
pens at work here and there, but the moment the 
secretary opened the sacred volume and began to read, 
a perfect hush fell on the entire body, no one moved 
from his place, and every eye was turned upon the 
reader, and every ear bent to catch each word as it 
fell upon a listening audience of over three hundred 
lawmakers of the land. That perfect silence declared 
in its mute but eloquent way the power of the Word 
of God. 

. Oftentimes in the sick room we have been made to 
remark the strange influence of the Scripture to 
soothe the sufferer, and produce temporary forgetful- 
ness of pain. Even the sound of the reader's voice 
has been known to affect others who were in adjoin- 
ing rooms, as they heard the reverent tone and knew 



n * LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

that the words of the Almighty were being repeated 
by human lips for the consolation and help of troubled 
hearts who were not more dependent upon God than 
themselves. 

We have been in homes where sorrow had come 
of the most poignant and overwhelming character, and 
as we opened the Bible and read, we saw the billows 
of agony subside and a great calm and peace steal into 
and fill the aching hearts of the entire household circle. 

In the native State of the writer tidings came one 
morning to an aged Christian of eighty that his son, a 
most promising young man of twenty-five, had been 
murdered by a negro in a dense swamp in the neigh- 
borhood; that the youth had lain mortally wounded 
for three days and nights in the woods, living only a 
few minutes after his discovery by a hunter. The mo- 
tive of the murder was a few dollars which the negro 
had seen in the young man's hand when he was in 
town. 

The instant the crushing news was given, the old 
father fell on his knees gasping out, "The Book— the 
Book !" 

The family knew well what he meant, and brought 
him the Bible. Opening with trembling fingers the 
volume that had been his stay and comfort ten thou- 
sand times, he turned to the fourteenth chapter of 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS H3 

John and began reading with a choking voice in the 
midst of the weeping household, the incomparable 
words of the Savior, "Let not your heart be troubled; 
ye believe in God, believe also in me." 

With every successive sentence his quivering voice 
grew stronger, when suddenly as he read the words, 
"I will come again and receive you unto myself; that 
where I am, there ye may be also," he uttered a shout 
of such rapturous, unearthly joy, that every hearer 
was electrified, and strong, unsaved men standing near 
the door w T ept like children. 

We have marked the power of the Bible in the lock- 
jawing, dumbfounding and utter silencing of gainsay- 
ers and men who endeavored to advocate false doc- 
trine, or press wrong ideas of duty and life upon indi- 
vidual and congregation. We have actually been 
startled at times to see the immediate effect produced 
on the sinful arguer and the perverse disputer in mat- 
ters where good common sense should have been suf- 
ficient, without the statement of Revelation. These 
sudden silencings have repeatedly reminded us of one 
smitten voiceless and motionless by a lightning bolt 
from the sky. The truth of God seems to strike like 
the electric flash from the clouds, and who wonders, 
when it is the same God who sends both. 

A single passage of the Word of God wTitten upon 



114 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



the wall of a palace brought to a wicked king and a 
thousand of his sinful companions an immediate and 
overwhelming consternation and despair. 

Men may wrangle as they will with their different 
views in regard to the Scripture and its measure of 
inspiration, and yet it remains a fact that there is no 
other book like it on earth in its strange ascendancy 
and power over the human mind and heart. 

When the great author of Scotland was dying, and 
said, "Give me the book," and some one said, "Which 
book?" his reply was, "There is but one," and in that 
response he voiced a colossal and eternal truth. 

A WEAK-MINDED LITTLE GIRL. 

We heard a preacher friend once tell of a family 
of his acquaintance, where there were three little girls 
aged ten, twelve and fourteen. The middle one was 
weak-minded. 

The father had been absent a week from home on a 
business trip when the mother, opening the mail at 
the breakfast table one day, said, "Your father writes 
that he will be here at eleven o'clock this morning." 

Instantly the children in great glee commenced 
clapping their hands, crying out: 

"Papa is coming to-day! Papa will be home to-day !" 

Soon after the morning meal the two sisters of ten 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS H5 

and fourteen went out into the flower yard to gather 
bouquets for the father. The smitten one went with 
them, and as her sisters culled the roses here and 
there, forming them into lovely nosegays, and over- 
looking her and her helplessness in their excitement 
and anticipation, she, thus left to herself, began to 
pick up pieces of stick and bits of wheat straw, which 
she found on the ground, and tied them together with 
a rag string. 

At this very moment the father appeared, approach- 
ing the gate, and immediately all three ran down the 
long garden walk to meet him. The first two of 
course outstripped their sister in the race, who was 
slower in movements of body as she was in mind. 

The father, stepping from the carriage and entering 
the gate, was met by the two bright-faced daughters, 
whose cheeks rivalled the hue of the flowers they 
held up as a gift to him. He embraced and kissed 
them both and received the roses from their hands 
with expressions of pleasure and gratification. 

Just then, looking up, he saw his little afflicted 
daughter looking appealingly at him and holding up 
her bundle of sticks and straw for his admiration and 
acceptance. His eyes gushed with tears, and taking 
the little one to his heart and kissing her repeatedly, 
he said with a choking voice: 



116 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



"Your bouquet is perfectly beautiful to your papa, 
my precious child," 

And he bent over the dry twigs as if he was inhal- 
ing the breath of lovely blossoms, while at the same 
time he hid the fast-dripping tears behind his hand. 

Oh, how gratified and pleased she was ! And how 
they all went up the walk to the house happy and lov- 
ing together. 

Coming into the library the father placed the two 
nosegays in glasses of water at the ends of the man- 
tel, which proceeding the bruised one watched with 
evident anxiety and fear. 

What would the father do with her bouquet? was 
the unmistakable query in her pleading eyes and wist- 
ful face, when lo ! he took a handsome cut glass vase, 
filled it with clear, sparkling water, and then gently 
and carefully deposited the bunch of sticks in it, and, 
wonder upon wonder! placed the glass vessel right in 
the center of the mantel between the other two bou- 
quets ! Then turning to the open-e} 7 ed, wondering, 
happy child he said : 

"Papa puts your bouquet right in the middle, be- 
cause it is so lovely in his eyes." 

And the little one, clapping her hands, danced about 
him in her happiness, crying out: 

"Papa put my bouquet in the middle." 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 117 

When we heard this story we did not say anything 
for quite a while because of a big lump in the throat 
that would not go down, and because of an aching 
swell in the heart that prevented the utterance of a 
word. 

But we thought then and since, that we had beheld 
a vision as well as explanation of our own spiritual 
case before the Lord. As compared with the deeds of 
angels and works of the gifted of earth, we felt that 
our best performances were as bunches of sticks and 
straw beside clusters of beautiful plants. 

But we also got a sight of the marvellous pity and 
love of God in the same scene in His acceptance of 
our labors for Him, though marked with imperfection 
and ignorance and failure. 

It is a poor work compared to others, but it was all 
we could do, and so the Lord may take us to His 
heart at last and praise our poor little bouquets of 
sticks and straw. 

And who can tell but that because of our deep love 
for Him, and in view of our ignorance and weakness, 
and because of our natural inferiority to others, and 
because we did the best we could, who can tell, but 
He may place our poor collection of sticks which He 
has watered with His tears, and sanctified with His 
blood, right in the middle of the mantel piece of glory, 



118 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



and in full view of men and angels, our brothers and 
sisters, in the Eternal Kingdom of God our Father. 

BUNSBY IN THE PULPIT. 

As we go around we are made confident more and 
more that the favorite pulpit and platform Occupant 
and Adorner in the eye, mind and heart of High 
Steeple Cathedral and the recognized Sanhedrims of 
the land, is the individual who can say with a fine 
presence and an eloquent roll of words, "We are all 
doing nicely indeed," and "Everything is quiet, 
Bishop" 

If in addition to this he can pay a glowing tribute 
to the Old Flag, speak of the brave boys in blue at 
the front, compliment the lodges, brotherhoods and 
sisterhoods in the land, and conclude tearfully with 
the moonlight falling on his mother's grave, then his 
name is made, his salary and liberal remuneration 
secure, his popularity unbounded, and he becomes a 
star of the first magnitude in what we call the Ter- 
restrial Heavens. 

Taking rank with this kind of preaching, if not out- 
ranking it in some quarters, is what we would term 
the Bunsby style. 

This famous pen creation of Dickens had a way of 
expressing himself that left the hearer much impressed, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 1 19 

but also mystified, and really just where he was before 
Mr. Bunsby had delivered himself of one of his sapi- 
ent utterances. 

Being asked whether he thought a certain person 
would return who had been reported drowned, Mr. 
Bunsby said: 

"If so be he is dead, my opinion is he won't come 
back no more. If so be he is alive my opinion is he 
will. Do I say he will 0 No! Why not? Because 
the bearings of this obserwation lays in the applica- 
tion on it." 

Oh! the Bunsbys all of us have heard in the pulpit 
and on the platform. And how deeply impressed some 
people were with them ! And how certain little shal- 
low heads went away saying. How profound! How 
deep ! How scholarly! When really one of Bunsby's 
descendants had been standing before us, and had been 
paraphrasing if not repeating the words of the origi- 
nal head of the tribe: "For why?" "Which way?" 
"If so, why not?" "Therefore!!" 

When a pastor in the South Ave once attended the 
widely known sea shore camp ground located between 
New Orleans and Mobile. Great preaching by true 
men of God had been delivered and without much vis- 
ible results at the altar in the way of penitents and 
seekers. And still not only good men had preached, 



120 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

but men who had given us new and strong thought, 
as well as Gospel food. 

One night a preacher was put up who for fifty min- 
utes kept a goodly company of us wondering what he 
was saying. He had an imposing presence, and a 
ringing voice and appeared to be delivering mighty 
thoughts when he was really saying nothing. 

On self-evident propositions that not even a boy 
would think of disputing and that were equivalent to 
saying that "two and two are four" he would redden 
in the face and fairly foam at the mouth, and hit the 
pulpit board with his fist, and thunder forth that "he 
asserted without fear of successful contradiction and 
disputation that such and such was so"! In other 
words "that two and two were four"! 

Then wiping his heated brow after this great vic- 
tory, he would sweep forth in a flood of words, sono- 
rous, high sounding and multitudinous when we could 
not conceive what he meant and at what he was aim- 
ing or driving. But the people listened breathlessly, 
and when the call was made for penitents, the long 
altar was crowded! 

Christian, the eldest son of Bishop Keener, a keen- 
eyed observer, fine reasoner and splendid preacher was 
sitting by us. He had never taken his eyes oft the 
preacher, and throughout had only indulged in a slow, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



121 



thoughtful downward stroke of his moustache and 
short chin beard. 

Turning to him in amazement we whispered under 
our breath: 

"What on earth brought the people to the altar?" 

Just then a large yellow dog came trotting up the 
aisle regardless of parasols, umbrellas and walking 
sticks that were pointed at or thrust towards him. 
But just as he was drawing near us, Christian Keener 
stooped down quickly and scooping up a handful of 
sawdust from the aisle, threw the light, harmless stuff 
at the saffron colored canine. 

To this day we can never forget the panic that 
seemed to possess the dog. To say he fled would be 
to place the occurrence entirely too mildly and tamely 
before the eyes. If ever a four-footed beast flew, the 
aforesaid quadruped took an aerial excursion. He 
seemed to land only a few times on the earth in his 
frantic effort to escape, and looked like not only the 
Adversary but the whole universe was after him. 

As the confused and frightened animal disappeared 
in the distance, Christian Keener turning to me with 
a peculiar smile, said : "You have my answer in alle- 
gory form. Like the dog, the people did not know 
what was thrown at them. They thought it was 
something when it was nothing. They went down 
before sawdust." 



123 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE BIRD IN THE TENT. 

While lying in my tent resting one afternoon at a 
camp meeting, a bird flew in., and at once much fright- 
ened tried to escape. The agitated performance of an 
hour by the confused little flutterer filled my mind with 
reflections. I saw at once that the bird's' theological 
education was all wrong. He had lost his liberty, and 
was in a lot of trouble about the matter, but was evi- 
dently seeking recovery and the beautiful experience 
and life of freedom, in a wrong way. The constant 
effort was to fly upward into it. But both corners 
and all the upward portion of the tent were tightly 
closed, and the only opening was a small triangular 
space near the floor in front. The bird did not even 
look down, much less fly down, but sought deliverance 
by the upward or growth route repeatedly, only to be 
driven back and sink with palpitating breast for a 
temporary rest on a nail high up on the post. 

I spoke to the penitent and seeker as I lav on my 
bed and said. '•'You will never get the blessing that 
way. The way of your salvation is not up "here 
You will have to get down low if you would be free 
indeed." 

The bird listened, but would not act on my advice. 
In tact he seemed worried over my interference, and 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



123 



said with a nervous chirp that he was a bird of pecu- 
liar temperament, and could not bear for any one to 
speak to him at the altar. That it confused him. 
That he felt better when he was left to himself. And 
that he believed in working out his salvation alone, 
and with fear and trembling. 

So we became silent, and witnessed fully thirty or 
forty failures in the next half hour. He beat his 
wings in vain against the thick cloth of the tent, while 
a sag in the canvass looking like an opening helped to 
deceive him. Into the sag, and round the pole he 
would come back to the same place, a nail in the top 
of the post. Here he would rest a few moments only 
to make another of his vain efforts for deliverance in 
the upward direction. 

I saw it was no use to give any more counsel, that 
he was an out and out spiritual evolutionist, that my 
voice simply disturbed and distracted, and that I 
would have to let him work out the problem to a suc- 
cess, by heart-breaking defeats in the line he was 
pursuing. 

At last, in sheer exhaustion, he fell upon my trunk, 
rested a few moments with open bill and throbbing 
throat, and then alighted on my valise. From this 
lower perch he dropped to the floor, looking bewil- 
dered and exhausted. He was at last at the mourners' 



124 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

bench, and now I felt sure that he would soon "get 
through." 

Just then he lifted his head and saw the opening 
before him, when, with a movement like a bound, he 
sprang through into liberty and sunshine. As he flut- 
tered through into the air he gave a glad exultant 
chirp that I knew stood with him for "hallelujah!" 

It would be hard to tell who was the gladdest over 
the deliverance, the bird or myself. He had been a 
chronic mourner so long as to quite wear me out; so 
when he disappeared with a musical hosanna, I turned 
over on my cot with a sigh of relief and said "Glory." 

plagiarism: 

Recently in a college debate on the Pacific coast, the 
first reward was given to a preacher of a certain denom- 
ination, on account of the forcible matter in his speech. 
A few days later a sharp-eyed reader called the atten- 
tion of the public to the fact that a gross plagiarism 
had been committed, and an address of the gifted 
Senator Vance of North Carolina had been purloined 
to shed glory on the youthful literary robber. The 
"deadly parallel" appeared in the papers, proving be- 
yond any question the fact of the theft, and the in- 
dignation and condemnation of the press in Washing- 
ton and Oregon was unqualified. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



125 



As I read from day to day the outspoken censure of 
the guilt. I could but wonder that the conscience of 
the public and newspaperdom could be so much health- 
ier than we find oftentimes in ecclesiastical realms. 

It is a common thing to hear some men take the 
striking points and illustrations, and sometimes the 
entire sermon of a brother preacher and reproduce 
them as his own mental production in some distant 
community. 

Of course there is such a thing as the gathering of 
knowledge in a general way by reading and study. 
But to take a man's own mental work, with the pecu- 
liar stamp of his mind upon point, argument, imag- 
ery, and illustration, and use it without giving credit 
to the real author and owner is to be guilty of pla- 
giarism or literary theft according to the decision and 
judgment of proper authorities long years and cen- 
turies ago. 

Lately we heard an evangelist deliver a striking 
allegory that had been coined in the brain of another 
preacher, and which we had heard the latter deliver 
several times with most powerful effect. The plagiariz- 
ing minister repeated it capitally, taking ten minutes 
and over to do so, and never gave the credit where it 
was due. The audience thought it was his own intel- 
lectual child and gave forth a storm of amens and 



126 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

hallelujahs, beaming and smiling on the speaker all 
the while. He meantime sniffed up the incense and 
received the adulation with the air of the owner and a 
kind of pleased yet wearied look as if he was accus- 
tomed to throwing off such finished work as had just 
aroused a storm of enthusiasm in the congregation. 

In the sight of God, and in the judgment of the 
literary world, he was a thief; and yet preacher as he 
was did not possess the tender conscience of the 
newspaper correspondents and editors of Oregon and 
Washington. 

Esop tells of a jackdaw who got hold of some pea- 
cock feathers and attached them to his own humble 
and ordinary tail, hoping thereby to dazzle beholders 
and be taken for a peafowl. The fable declares that 
the effort was a failure and the bird had a melancholy 
end. There was too much of jackdaw left to make 
the act a successful delusion. 

The language of a parrot is necessarily limited. 
Then his accent is against him. As for the jackdaw, 
his normal size is out of proportion to his abnormal 
pretensions. The cheat is certain to be found out, 
and the thief bound to be caught at last. 

And so it came to pass that a catbird, dissatisfied 
with its general proportions, short feathers and sober 
tinted plumage, extracted a plume from an ostrich 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 127 

while he slept, stole some long golden-eyed feathers 
from the peafowl, a brilliant comb and collar from 
the pheasant, and went forth with these rich attach- 
ments to astonish the denizens of the forest. He did 
so, for a while. But it transpired that after their first 
admiration and amazement, the different birds recog- 
nized their own property and that of their friends, 
and pouncing upon the aspiring biped stripped him of 
his borrowed and purloined glory and left him in his 
littleness the center of general and highly amused 
criticism. Since that time the catbird has retired to 
bushes and obscure thickets, and does nothing but 
fuss and scold all day. If any one doubts the verac- 
ity of this last statement, let him go into the woods 
and listen to the bird of which we speak. 



TARRY AT JERICHO. 

There are two commands in the Bible to "tarry." 
One was from David to certain of his servants to wait 
at Jericho until their beards were grown; the other 
from the Savior to the disciples not to leave Jerusalem 
until the Holy Ghost came upon them. As we go on 
our way down the years, Ave see more and more the 
need of compliance with the first command, as well as 
the second. There is a greenness, rashness and igno- 



12-S LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

ranee shown in quarters where the fault lies mainly 
— beardiessness or youth and inexperience. These 
adolescent would-be teachers have come out as teach- 
ers, reiormers, critics and nidges, without having* re- 
mained long enough in Jericho. How certain and 
positive they are upon matters about which there 
have been Ginerences of opinion among" the 
best and wisest of people for generations and 
centuries back! How ready, too, to expound the 
most difficult and mysterious Bible passages! How 
confidently they will sit in judgment uoon men who 
have borne the heat and burden of the day. and led 
thousands of souls to God. 

To this day. the writer groans at the recollection of 
certain persistent appearances oo vims el: in the streeis 
co Jerusalem without a beard, when he should have 
been in Jericho waiting for it to grow. In other 
words, before he was qualified by age. wisdom or 
experience, he was explaining unexplainable passages 
in the Bible, had torn to pieces three bishops' ser- 
mons, or thought he did. counseled a college president 
how to run his school, and felt from the bottom of 
his soul that he could edit a leading church paper bet- 
ter than any one who had ever sat upon its tripod. 
It was true that three 01 these editors had been ele- 
vated to the office of a bishop, but that, in his heated 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



129 



state of mind, meant nothing, and not susceptible of 
any disparaging application to himself. 

When a ministerial friend of the writer told him, 
with a peculiar smile, that he had once ridden one 
hundred miles out of his way just to thank a congre- 
gation he had formerly served, the smile was so re- 
markable, as if something was being kept in the back- 
ground, that we asked him what he wanted to express 
gratitude to them for. His reply was, with one of the 
most amused expressions we ever saw on a face 

"They listened to my preaching the first year of my 
ministry." 

In other words, he felt he had trodden the streets 
of Jerusalem ahead of time. Jericho had been sadly 
neglected. Beard, and that which is supposed to 
go with it, had been sorely lacking. 

In a certain circuit in one of our Southern 
Conferences, a young preacher was sent who had 
neither spirituality, education or natural brightness of 
mind. A pious and cultured lay member of the 
church was asked how he was standing the appoint- 
ment; his reply was, "We have accepted it as an in- 
scrutable providence/ 5 

The above reflections were inspired by a pulpit cir- 
cumstance which occurred in the southern part of this 
city recently. The young preacher gave the remark- 



ISO 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



able information to his audience, in talking about the 
vine and branches, that "We are the vine and our sins 
the branches, which ve must be continually cutting 
off." 

What a flood of light must at once have been poured 
on the minds of the listeners! How at once it be- 
came clear that the branches were purged or trimmed, 
that we might bring forth more sin ! 

Verily, Jericho, rather than Jerusalem, is the proper 
habitation for certain people ; anyhow for a while. 

GARLANDS AND STONES. 

Garlands and stones are about as unlike as it is pos- 
sible for two things to be. One a wreath of roses 
intertwined with green sprays and vines is a fragrant, 
lovely object, attractive and desirable to all. The 
other a hard, angular substance, cold, lusterless, odor- 
less and painful, brings blood, bruises, intense anguish 
and even death itself. 

In the pastorate the first procession is the Flower 
Parade. Roses are in profusion. Smiles, well wishes 
and congratulations abound. Everybody is so glad 
to welcome the new preacher. They had often heard 
of him. and were now so delighted to have him. The 
newly-appointed is fairly yoked up with garlands. 
The collars, traces, indeed, all the harness is made of 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



131 



wreaths of roses. The whip is a honeysuckle vine 
loaded with blossoms. 

But later there is a change. And it was not long 
in coming. A few faithful sermons, and the flowers 
disappeared as by a deadly frost. Certain pews were 
significantly and ominously vacant. The very people 
who gushed most over the new preacher, are busiest 
now in the rock business. 

The way stones rattle about that same individual 
would cause the figurative mind to say that V esuvius 
had blown up, and hot lava, scoria and boulders of all 
shapes and sizes were descending toward and falling 
upon that particular part of the earth where this un- 
fortunate minister of the Gospel resided. 

This kind of treatment is so w T ell known to the 
faithful evangelist that he expects nothing else. He 
who understands human nature, and the power of 
God's Word, knows that it is impossible to deliver the 
messages God would have us speak, and escape what 
we call "stoning." So when the Gospel Messenger is 
garlanded from the beginning to the end of his meeting, 
we are compelled to believe that he has not been true 
to God, to the Word, and to the souls of the people. 

Once in a meeting we arrived before a committee, 
composed of the Mayor and two other prominent citi- 
zens of the town, could greet us at the depot and ex- 



182 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



tend us the public welcome they thought we deserved. 
The Mayor and all were chagrined. But the disap- 
pointed feelings were mollified somewhat by a car- 
riage drive given us around and over the town. The 
negro driver wore a beaver hat, the horses were high 
steppers, the vehicle stylish, and the committee did 
well and nobly. 

But all the time we felt inwardly sad. We knew 
that they had made a mistake in the man. The prince 
they wanted to crown was not in the chariot. They 
did not have the public speaker they expected or 
desired. Another fellow was in the carriage. So we 
were sorry for them all that afternoon hour in which 
they took so much pains to please and honor us. 

It only required a couple of days to completely dis- 
enchant the congregation. A few sermons on Sin and 
Salvation, that went to the bottom of the former, and 
to the top of the latter, created a wide chasm. The 
Mayor, Ave are convinced, would gladly have been one 
of a number to have seen us safely but speedily out of 
town ; while the original committee, if they had been 
allowed to treat us to another hack drive, would 
have chosen a hearse for the vehicle and an undertaker 
to have conducted the proceedings. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 138 

THE CUT DOLLAR BILL. 

At one of our camp meetings the Singer adopted a 
novel but most successful way of having himself 
served promptly and satisfactorily at the hotel table 
by one of the negro waiters. In the rush of the great 
crowd at the numerous tables, many failed to get 
what they wanted, and this song evangelist on the 
first day was one of that class. 

But the second day he was ready, and calling a col- 
ored boy to his side he drew out a new, crisp one- 
dollar bill and with a pair of pocket scissors cut the 
bank note exactly in two. 

Giving one part to the servant he said, "If you wait 
on me right, the balance of this camp meeting, then 
at its close I will give you the other half of this bill." 

As he said this he deliberately returned his portion 
of the note to his purse, while the colored waiter, tak- 
ing the other part of the severed greenback, fairly 
joined himself to my friend after that. He not only 
waited but ministered unto him. He not only abound- 
ed but superabounded in his attentions. He knew that 
the share of the note he held was perfectly worthless 
unless he obtained the other section, and so he out- 
did himself in his service, and my friend lacked no 
good thing of the table in all the remaining nine days 
of the camp. 



184 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



On the tenth day he was presented with the second 
or remaining part of the bill, and he immediately 
donned a smile which went from ear to ear. 

So we thought, are the two installments of divine 
grace. Pardon is given first and Holiness next. They 
come separate and at different times. You cannot get 
the second until you first obtain the other. More- 
over, if we lose the first we cannot receive the second. 
And still further, if we do not obtain the second the 
first will not be sufficient to bring us full salvation 
and secure entrance into the skies. 

The Bible declares that without holiness no man 
shall see the Lord; that the pure in heart shall sec 
God; that nothing unclean enters into the city. 

Many overlook the fact that is most clearly taught 
in Scripture, that justification is a title to Heaven, but 
holiness is fitness for the glory world. 

Any thoughtful person must see the difference. A 
man may have a title to a piece of land or property, 
but when it is proved that he has not mental fitness, 
or is in a word insane, he cannot take possession or 
enter upon the enjoyment and management of the 
estate. 

So justification is a title to Paradise, but if a man 
fails to qualify for Heaven, or neglects that spiritual 
condition or fitness in holiness, without which he can- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



135 



not see God, then he is certain to miss the Kingdom 
above. 

In a word, we not only should see to it that we get 
the first or initial part of salvation, but we should 
never rest until we secure the second finishing work 
of God in the soul, the blessing of entire sanctification. 

It is the man who is true to the first work of grace, 
careful not to lose it, hanging around the Lord and 
devoting himself to the service of the Saviour, who 
finally gets the other part of the celestial bank note of 
Full Salvation. 

When he receives it, it is worth traveling many 
miles to hear him thank God, to see his smile of per- 
fect peace, and to listen to his laugh full of a great 
overflowing joy and gladness. 

THE ALARM WHISTLE. 

Recently, while in my room in the sixth story of a 
hotel in a large city, I heard the wail of a steam whis- 
tle. Its rise and fall, and protracted call, plainly 
declared distress. It was immediately answered by 
the regular steam whistle used for fire alarms. I 
walked quickly to the window and over eight blocks 
away saw from my lofty perch the whole trouble. A 
factory was on fire, and frantically blowing its own 
alarm, and giving its mental shrieks for help. 



186 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

Almost immediately I saw five or six different fire 
engines start for the place of trouble. With clanging 
bells, trampling horses, thundering wheels, and great 
clouds of smoke pouring out of their funnels, they 
flew to relieve the distressed tenement. In a few min- 
utes they reached the spot and unlimbered amid the 
cries, shouts and jostling of a great multitude, the 
crackling of the flames, the crash of falling timber*, 
and the dense volumes of smoke that rose like a great 
black mountain to the sky. In another minute or so 
I saw six streams of water ascending, curving over, 
and falling upon the roof through which the red 
flames were now bursting. I could see men on their 
lofty ladders breaking out windows in the upper 
stories, to drag their hose through and have a hand 
to hand fight with the fire. Then I turned my eyes 
from them to watch with an indescribable fascination 
the white, slender columns of water as, bending here 
and there, they poured a steady stream of crystal help 
on the fire-wrapped building which now seemed un- 
doubtedly doomed. It made me breathless to see the 
even fight for a while, and how, when the water got 
the best of the flame at one place, it would break out 
in another. Immediately, at the command of the captain 
or foreman, the streams would be turned in that new 
direction, and another fearful battle would take place. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 137 

Meantime the firemen were faithful on the street, 
the engines were in full blast and quivering with 
power, cisterns and plugs answered to the demands 
on them, men worked like beavers or, rather, heroes, 
and a vast surging crowd filling the streets, looked 
with deepest interest on the absorbing spectacle. 

For a full half hour I leaned against the window sill 
gazing upon the distant scene with wet eyes and a 
profoundly stirred heart. It moved me because it was 
such a striking picture of Sin and Salvation; such a 
wonderful illustration of a faithful Church trying to 
save a World from the fire of an everlasting destruc- 
tion. 

No question about the present danger and coming 
ruin if we cannot put out the flame with the streams of 
salvation. No dispute about the multitude looking on, 
and the few working. No doubt whatever of hercu- 
lean labors performed and deeds of moral heroism 
taking place all the time in this terrific fight against 
Sin, and constant struggle to pull men out from this 
burning world. 

Suppose that the clerks, bookkeepers and factory 
hands had marshalled themselves on the arrival ot 
the Fire Engines and Ladder Corps and fought 
them off, saying they resented all interference, 
and wanted to burn up! Then! we would have 



188 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



the finishing touch, which, inconceivable in the 
first case, is true of the world. Men sink- 
ing into hell demand to be let alone. They get 
angry as we pull them from falling ruins. They in- 
sist it is nobody's business if they are damned; and 
so all infuriated at the rush of Heaven's Fire Brigade, 
and the streams of salvation turned upon their burn- 
ing sins — they raise weapons of resistance against 
their best spiritual friends. 

THE PROLONGED WHISTLE. 

On another morning, while on my way down town, 
the "Elevated" sounded forth its electric shriek for a 
crossing at one of the streets. For some reason the 
whistle got out of order, and the engineer could not 
stop it. For minutes it blew and wailed, the train 
was brought to a standstill, there was considerable 
speculation upon the part of the passengers, confabula- 
tion and running about by the brakemen and con- 
ductor, and at last we heard one say that the engine 
was out of fix and would have to be switched off and 
sent to the repair shops. This was done, a new motor 
car was sent flying down to us, and we were soon 
bowling again through the city on a line with the 
third story windows. 

But I thought, as we sped along, that I had seen 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



139 



some people who on various protracted and camp- 
meeting occasions had sounded the whistle too long. 
There are two extremes here as elsewhere; one where 
a man will not testify at all, and another where, after 
the dumb devils are cast out, he talks too much. Satan 
is responsible for both cases. 

We have all heard the prolonged whistle, the jump- 
ing to the feet on any and all occasions, the verbal 
threshing over and over of the same little handful of 
wheat, while the train stopped and the passengers who 
wanted to get somewhere fumed and wondered. 

Graver still, we have heard in meetings a talkative- 
ness that was not only not of God but plainly declared 
to the thoughtful, of unmistakable mental disloca- 
tion, or some strange cerebral excitement super- 
seding the ardent but always level-headed and 
perfectly regulated utterance of the sanctified ex- 
perience. In prayer they became incoherent and 
apoplectic; in testimony wild, visionary and discon- 
nected; and in exhortation violent, abusive and self- 
contradictory. The length and character of the whis- 
tling declared that some of the internal works were 
out of order. Something was one-sided ; something 
had become unbalanced ; steam was escaping not only 
to no profit but to the distress of the hearers. 

Perhaps no one said anything, but many thought at 



HO 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



once of the repair shop. That repair shop may be a 
sanitarium, a trip to the mountains or seaside, or a 
correcting, steadying blessing from the Lord. But 
surely some have need of the Round House of Grace 
into which they can run to get doctrine and experi- 
ence to agree, and the whistle of testimony to har- 
monize with the truth of the Bible, with sanctified 
common sense, and with the inward spiritual life of 
the whistler. 

My singer, Prof. R — — , was once conducting a tes- 
timony meeting. He asked a silent lady member of 
the church why she did not say something as did 
others. She replied that she was still because she 
had no gifts to express herself. His blunt rejoinder 
was, 'The real reason is that you have nothing to tell, 
you have no experience to talk about." 

A few days after that the lady in question sought 
and obtained a great blessing at the altar. Immedi- 
ately her tongue began to fly. Hardly any one else 
could get in a word because of her loquacity. She 
became garrulous instead of unctuous and edifying. 

Whereupon Prof. R fell upon his knees in the 

midst of the service and cried out in prayer: 

"O Lord, several days ago we asked Thee to start 
this woman's tongue ; we now have to beseech Thee to 
please stop it!" 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



141 



The conclusion we draw from all this is that, if a 
Christian has no testimony, or does not whistle at all, 
he needs steam or the baptism of fire. If he whistles 
or talks too much, he needs the repair shop. May we 
all be guided into the middle ground of truth, and 
speak always right, and just enough on every occa- 
sion, to receive upon our souls the unclouded approval 
of God, and bring the most good to the greatest num- 
ber of people. 

"WHERE ART THOU?" 

We once knew a lady who had a son, that as a lad 
possessed the best of morals and the most attractive 
of manners. Several years later he fell into the daily 
company of boys who were his inferiors in every 
respect. In a single year they hoodlumized him ! 

When still later we saw the lad with his animalized 
face, tobacco and beer habits, foul speech and rude, 
coarse ways, it was almost impossible to believe that 
he was the same bright-eyed, clean-lipped being whom 
we had met in earlier, happier years. His mother, in 
speaking out her heart agony over the life ruin, sobbed 
and wrung her hands as she cried, "Where is my 
beautiful boy of whom I was so proud? Where is 
my little gentleman— my little prince? Oh, they have 
ruined him! And he is gone forever!" 



142 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



This is the kind of heartbreaking cry which God 
has in the question, "Where art thou?" when he looks 
at his soured, embittered, world-captured, sin-stained, 
backslidden child or servant. Once he was a prince 
and had power with God and men. Now he is a shorn 
Samson, fettered and blind, and grinding for the 
Philistines. 

When spiritual energy has subsided into lethargy; 
and life into death. When love has changed to vine- 
gar and gall. When humility has been swallowed 
up in arrogance and pride. When false doctrine has 
relegated the great saving truths of Christianity to' 
the rear. When tongues speaking gibberish and noth- 
ing that the world or church can understand, are 
placed above the loving unctuous speech given in 
holiness, and which operates to the conviction of 
the sinner and to the edifying and strengthening of 
believers— when these things take place, it is time for 
God's telegrams to arrive to all such with the old 
question, "Where art thou?" 

In a certain church the pastor delivered so many 
messages from Heaven to the congregation bearing 
the purport of the divine words, "Where art thou?" 
that the Board of Stewards petitioned the Bishop to 
remove the messenger. They evidently wanted a man 
to fill their pulpit who was not in touch with the 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



143 



skies, and whom the Lord did not use. They got 
him and were delighted with him. 

In a camp meeting held by one of our evangelists, 
five grave sins and neglects of duty prevailed in the 
audience. He handed out as many telegrams from 
God to his backslidden people calling attention to 
their wrongdoing and lack of doing. Some stormed, 
some raged, some abused the preacher, and others 
retaliated by staying away from a meeting where 
such dispatches came from the skies, and God had 
servants faithful enough to deliver them. Every one 
of the pulpit telegrams seemed to have the dark, sad 
query in it, "Where art thou?" And without excep- 
tion they all seemed to disturb and even infuriate. 

Some years back, a preacher filled with the Spirit, 
and holding up the Blood of Christ, witnessed a 
mighty revival ; one that among other things closed 
fourteen saloons, while thirteen of the fourteen saloon- 
keepers were converted. 

After this came a fork in the road, and he took the 
wrong course. To-day he denies the Divinity of the 
Son of God, is spiritually dried up and powerless, and 
has gone to lecturing for a living. He could easily 
say "God not only answers me no more, but uses me 
no more." He is but a shadow and wreck of his 
former self. And now as he stands on a platform 



144 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

talking platitudes and making shekels from his un- 
spiritual, inoffensive deliverances, the old question, 
"Where art thou?" brings the light of revelation to 
his case, and the blackness of condemnation as well. 

AYe have known men who at one time of their Chris- 
tian lives were humble, sweet, prayerful and unctuous. 
In later years we found them completely changed, bit- 
ter, faultfinding, censorious, abusive and slanderous. 
We have felt that if the question came rushing from 
heaven to them, as they now pose as preachers, teach- 
ers, critics and judges of the church and its entire 
membership, lay and clerical, it would bring not only 
an overwhelming confusion to them, but a complete 
silencing and an utter life and character overthrow. 
Perhaps they would fall down dead before the ques- 
tion, as Ananias and Sapphira sank lifeless on the 
floor, when a similar query came to them from the 
Holy One through the lips of the Apostle. 



THE SICKNESS DODGE. 

Many are the excuses and pleas put up for the sud- 
den discontinuance in attendance on the services held 
in the church. Sometimes anger is counterfeited. The 
party was shocked at such fanaticism ; could not stand 
to hear the church abused; was sick of hearing re- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 145 

generation so belittled; did not believe in riding a 
hobby, etc., etc. 

But the most generally practiced rule of the Jonah 
fraternity is the "sickness dodge." The church was 
too hot, or too cold, or there was such a draft, and 
they caught such a dreadful cold! Hack! Hack! 
Hack! O my! O dear! They did not dare to go back 
to the meeting! They felt that they would run such 
a risk in doing so ! It would be tempting Providence ! 

Neuralgia, rheumatism and bad colds are the most 
popular diseases with most church members during a 
genuine Revival. People who are interested in sta- 
tistics need only to study the health question in a 
community just before, during and after a full salva- 
tion meeting to be struck with the fact how certain 
diseases fairly rage during the ten days' services and 
instantly disappear when the meeting is over. 

In a town in a Western State where God was hon- 
oring the services by putting great power on the 
Word, it was remarkable how many church members 
were taken sick and took to bed. We heard the words 
neuralgia, pneumonia, rheumatism and bad colds men- 
tioned so often in connection with people who shot 
by the truth, fled the meeting, that it was difficult to 
keep from smiling. We knew that it was not so much 
neuralgia as it was the old-ralgia that was the mat- 



146 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

ter. Not pneumonia so much as the old-monia. Not 
bad colds were the trouble, but the phrase properly 
divided, thoroughly described the condition— viz bad 
and cold. 

A preacher sent us word in explanation and apol- 
ogy for his absence, that about three o'clock every 
afternoon, (this was the hour of our day service) his 
feet always got cold, and the coldness ascended at 
such times as high as the knees. 

We heard the excuse with a smile, and felt firmly 
convinced that the coldness had gone higher than the 
brother's knees, and had reached his heart. 

We also recalled the well known fact in the medical 
world that when a man gets cold to his knees he is 
counted as good as dead. 

By the tenth day it looked as if an epidemic had 
come to the place. On the eleventh day we left the 
place before daybreak to get an early train. A few 
days later we received a letter from a friend in the 
town we had left, stating that all the sick were well. 
That they were up and about and on the street as 
usual Monday morning. That they regained health 
the instant the meeting closed and we had departed. 

Of course, this letter made us marvel over heart 
hypocrisy and Satanic delusion; but we were espe- 
cially caused to wonder at our undreamed of power 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS u? 

to heal folks. In our case ahead of anything now go- 
ing on. For, according to the different schools and 
teachers of healing the presence of the healer is need- 
ed to bring health, but in our case, our absence matie 
the entire town well. We left and the community was 
instantaneously restored to health. 

Why should we not inaugurate a new system of 
physical recovery? And why not call it "Healing By 
Absence?" 

"I WILL HAVE MY WAY OR DIE." 

In the town of our childhood and boyhood, a great 
muscular man of thirty or forty, became offended with 
a silversmith about a trifle. Wrought into a kind of 
frenzy he walked into the jewelry store and slapped 
the face of the gentleman referred to. He had been 
begged by friends beforehand not to do so. Men 
knew that the silversmith, although a small and frail- 
looking person, had the heart of a lion as to courage. 
But the enraged man was bent on having his way. 
In fact he said "he would have his way or die." 

The silversmith, realizing that he had no chance 
in a fisticuff, deliberately armed himself, and sending 
word to his insulter and attacker to prepare to meet 
him, as deliberately set his own feet in the same 
fatal road in which his antagonist had entered. In 



148 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



thirty minutes they were both dead men. Each had 
received from four to five pistol balls in their bodies 
before falling lifeless on the brick pavement of Yazoo 
City. We saw the ghastly sight when a lad, and 
have never and can never forget it. Each one had 
his way and died. 

We have known so many distressing occurrences to 
take place on this melancholy thoroughfare of which 
we are writing, that we actually get sick and faint at 
heart when we hear a person saying, "I am deter- 
mined to have my way or die." We know in the 
double light of revelation and history that the speech 
really means, "I am resolved to have my way and 
die!" 

Who can doubt this a moment who credits the state- 
ments of the Word of God, and studies certain bio- 
graphies in the same sacred volume? Scores of lives 
held up in the Scripture can be perfectly covered and 
described by the sentence as amended. And Absalom 
had his way and died. Samson had his way and died. 
Baalam had his way and died. Judas had his way 
and died. All died while in the midst of their own 
way. And the death was peculiar in being premature, 
calamitous, tragical, dreadful and hopeless. 

If we come to history it reads the same. It matters 
not what age or country the individual lives in; if 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

149 

his way is not God's way, but is a life contrary to 
the Word of God, and to the Spirit of Christ, there 
is nothing but death in a disastrous sense to be looked 
for. 

Then there are deaths resultant from this course 
winch are more heart-breaking and calamitous than a 
mere dissolution of soul and body. 

The self-willed, perverse course often means the de- 
struction of happiness to other people. It is a dread- 
ful thing to behold the light and joy go out of the 
lives of innocent members of a household through the 
selfishness and obstinacy of a single individual in that 
same family circle. 

So the course of self-will not only ends the peace of 
the home, but effects finally the ruin of the home itself 
Who wonders that such a person is finally left to 
rule over a desert; or to sit as king on a throne of 
straw with a crown of straw in a life dungeon whose 
walls are loneliness, and whose atmosphere is one of 
unbroken silence. 

The burial ground or lot of such home destroyers 
could very properly and suggestively be ornamented 
with such shrubbery as flame scorched trees, and such 
monuments as a group of fire-blackened chimneys 
standing kke ghastly sentinels in the midst of twisted 
rusty iron, charred beams and piles of gray ashes. 



150 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



"LET HIM HAVE IT." 

We have often observed boys gazing through the 
window of a confectionery at the dainties and sweet- 
meats within. We have also marked them with their 
faces pressed close to plank, rail or picket fence, look- 
ing with all their hearts in their eyes at the golden 
apples in the orchard, or the big watermelons turned 
up so invitingly to the gaze in a neighboring garden 
or field. 

We to-day smile at the spectacle, but the day was 
when we longed for the fruit and there was no smile 
in us. The amusement felt now comes from having 
taking many trips over there in the Boys' Eldorado. 
The apples were sour many times. The watermelons 
were overripe and feverish and made us sick. So 
somehow the enthusiast has been greatly chilled in 
regard to such territories and objects. 

What are men and women but grown-up children? 
We have seen the same gaze in older eyes directed 
through restraining fences at fruit out of reach and 
which did not belong to the gazers. 

"'Oh for that watermelon!" said the longing look, 
"Oh for that pleasure that I see afar off." 

Suddenly something in life happens. A rail is dis- 
placed, a picket knocked down, or the fence is climbed 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS l 5l 

over by divine or human permission. A voice within 
says, "Pull the melon. Plug it. Cut a slice and eat." 
You do so, and lo ! it was not what you expected. It 
was feverish. You grew sick at heart over the disap- 
pointment, but oh, how wise in head you became. 

Ruskin in a sketch of his life tells us that when he 
was a baby in the arms of his nurse he saw a bronze 
tea urn. It was glistering hot with the boiling fluid 
in it, but it was quite pretty with its shining polished 
surface and so he wanted it. The nurse held him 
back, but he still screamed and reached for it. Finally 
his mother said quietly to the nurse, 

"Let him have it." 

He grasped the vessel and instantly let go with a 
howl of anguish. 

From that early age he learned not to reach for 
everything that was pretty and attractive. The lesson 
of letting some things alone was fairly burned into 
him. 

So the education goes on. "The patience of Immor- 
tal Love outwearies mortal sin." Wisdom streams into 
the mind from many different directions. The frost 
is seen to nip the flowers, sunsets fade in spite of all 
their beauty, the earth sounds hollow to the tread, 
and Heaven, pure, true, satisfying and eternal, wheels 
into view. This disenchantment of one world and 



152 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

enthrallment of another should occasion no soreness or 
bitterness, but bring about proper conditions of the 
soul, and the true attitude of life to man and God, 
while the garments of time are worn as one would 
the apparel of the body, ready to be laid aside when 
the hour for disrobing arrives. 

Thank God for the wonderful schooling we obtain 
outside of colleges and universities. 

THE .DISCARDED MUSIC BOX. 

We held a meeting once in a town, where in the 
office of the hotel stood a large cabinet-sized music 
box, five or six feet in height, and as many broad. It 
was a very fine instrument, and with its great disc 
wheels and deep melodious notes would fully repay 
the party who, dropping a nickel through the slot, lis- 
tened to "Norma/ 1 "'My Little Georgia Rose," "Sweet 
Fields of Virginia, 93 "Ah, I Have Sighed to Rest Me," 
and other equally lovely pieces. We have known gen- 
tlemen, especially traveling men, to spend an hour or 
so listening in the office to this superior instrument; 
while the refining, quieting, cheering and oftentimes 
melting influence upon individual and company was 
unmistakable. 

After an absence of several years we returned to 
the town, and to the same hostelry, and passing 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



153 



through the office at once missed the musical cabinet. 
We put no questions, but wondered what had become 
of our old friend. 

Next day in the hallway of an outhouse building in 
the back yard, we saw it standing in the midst of a 
pile of boxes, rubbish and general litter. As we 
looked at its weather-stained, dusty sides, broken lock 
and panel, and forlorn disused appearance, we felt a 
pang of genuine grief and a thoughtful melancholy 
stole over our spirit. It had been such a fine instru- 
ment; and it had given so much pleasure and had 
done so much good to many hundreds of people, that 
the heart could not but grieve over its present dis- 
carded, forgotten, and useless state. The very good 
it had done in the past seemed to demand a different 
and better treatment; and then it hurt to see it silent, 
and unsought and unemployed anyhow. 

Nevertheless we got some lessons from the music 
box. We remembered to have seen like things only 
on a larger scale in life itself. We have beheld men 
richly endowed with natural gifts and spiritual graces, 
and made a blessing under God to scores and hun- 
dreds. For years the music of their lives was a charm 
and the power of their deeds an inspiration to many. 

And then, after all that, we have observed them 
become silent, and marked them set aside, banished 



154 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



and forgotten. Sometimes it has been their own con- 
duct that has brought about this state of affairs. 
Sometimes it is the injustice, cruelty and wrongs of 
their fellowman that has led to the silencing of the 
masterful voice and the wreck,, ruin, and pitiful end 
of the once useful and victorious life. 

Whatever may have been the cause, it is certainly 
a heart-breaking sight to see one once mightily em- 
ployed of God, now overlooked, unsought and for- 
gotten, 

W e meet with these discarded life music boxes 
everywhere we go. Some are in the insurance business. 
Some have become teachers and professors in colleges. 
Some are already in the rubbish and litter 
pile. At almost every one of our meetings we 
see one or more of them looking hard and gloomy, 
talking sourly or bitterly, or moping silently in a cor- 
ner and giving no sign that once their souls w r ere 
filled with holy melody, and that they had stirred, 
melted and thrilled thousands with their songs, pray- 
ers, testimonies and sermons. Alas for the silent 
music boxes of God ; and alas for the world that so 
needed their music. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 155 

MISSING THE CAR. 

The writer was standing on a corner recently in one 
of our large cities awaiting a street car. He was 
pressed for time., and needed to take the first one that 
passed. But suddenly he became very much interested 
in watching a gentleman who was trying to catch a 
car that was nearly a block away. The man certainly 
did put forth a lot of energy, but the distance was 
considerable, the public conveyance was about to 
turn a corner, and the racer struggled against the 
additional difficulty of having a cigar in his mouth. 

We could but feel that to make a successful run he 
needed to lay aside every weight, the cigar which so 
easily beset him, and run with swiftness the race that 
was set before him. But he did not, and just as we 
feared, in spite of all our sympathetic movement of 
limbs, and gazing of eyes , he missed the thing he 
pursued. 

But lo! and behold! while watching and mentally 
criticizing and wondering and even worrying about 
our unknown friend racing for his car. we missed our 
own ! While absorbed in his case. Ave lost our own 
chance. 

With a most decidedly foolish feeling as well as 
look, we leaned against a lamppost and got to 
moralizing. 



156 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

AYe said,, that is just what a lot of people are doing 
to-day. They are so taken up with fault finding 
and judging the characters and lives of other 
Christians : they are so absorbed in observing other 
individuals in their race for heaven and eternal life; 
they take up so much time in telling their brethren 
how they ought to make speed, and what to do as they 
race for the Kingdom, that they forget to run them- 
selves. They see it is true, a number miss the Car of 
Salvation, but alas for it! they also miss it themselves ! 
The man with the cigar in his mouth is in a bad fix; 
but the man who is absorbed in watching the strug- 
gles, weaknesses and failures of others is in as lament- 
able a condition. Both will miss the car! 

A wrong practice will cause one to come short in 
making the heavenly run; but what of the buzzard 
eye. the jackal snout, the nature of the ghoul, and the 
handshake of a modern Joab who says, "Good morning, 
brother," and then runs the unsuspecting victim 
through with the sword of harshest criticism, judg- 
ment, and abuse. 

Between a wrong personal habit, and a tongue "set 
on fire of hell/' and dripping with malice, innuendo, 
misrepresentation, slander, falsehood, and hate, most 
of the world's inhabitants would lose scarcely a 
moment in decision and choice. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



157 



To a lot of people who live most of the time on the 
Judgment Seat, or rather the Buzzard's Roost, some 
most startling but excellent advice from the great 
Apostle might most profitably come; and that is — 
"Work out your OWN salvation with fear and 
trembling/' 

We honestly believe that if some who name the 
name of Christ, but who live in suspicion and, malevo- 
lence, could see how far they have drifted from the 
Spirit ofChrist they would have need to "tremble !" 

So the moral as well as exhortation in our Kansas 
City street corner illustration is, that the man who 
gets absorbed in watching a brother miss the car of 
salvation, had better be careful lest by another and yet 
as certain a way he fails himself to reach Heaven and 
Eternal Life. 

THE SKY PIERCER. 

It verily seems that the spirit of building a tower 
that should reach the skies has come down from the 
plains of ancient Babel to the Island of Manhattan. 
Already it has a brigade of tenements that are over 
twenty floors high, and one is even thirty-four. Now 
another has been started that is to reach the amazing 
height of sixty stories. 

We can but think of the Day when the Lord shall 



158 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



appear in the heavens, time shall be no more, and this 
old earth begin to stagger around in the air like a 
drunken man. 

In the San Francisco disaster God made the ground 
to move about an inch back and forth for several 
minutes. And this one inch swing made a desolation 
of a great city. But at the end of the world, the Bible 
says the Lord will arise to shake the earth terribly! 
We are told that the mountains will flow down at the 
presence of the Lord, and the hills skip like lambs. 
What chance will there be for edifices of human con- 
struction at such a time of dissolving nature as this? 
And what hope for the "skyscrapers," as they are 
called, in that dreadful hour of reddened moon, 
blackened sun, falling stars and shaking world. For 
a single moment we see their lofty summits waving 
like treetops in the lurid air, and then all going down 
together with a general and final crash. 

Somehow we do not take to skyscrapers in 
buildings, in the pulpit, and in the character realm. 
We prefer the Sky Piercer! It is possible to live in a 
one-story, one-room house, and yet all in it belonging 
to God, and loving and serving him devotedly. Any 
one at once can see it is more than a skyscraper; and 
is really a Sky Piercer. The Lord of heaven lives in it : 
this puts even the lowest step above the clouds and stars. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS I59 

As for the preacher in the pulpit, and christian in 
his Life, all can take the Sky Scraper who will, but 
give me the Sky Piercer! 

The man who scrapes the sky, simply, as the words 
plainly indicate, gives us the scrapings from the out- 
side of the sky. But the hungry, needy souls of men 
want what is INSIDE the heavens. 

So the best wish we could make for the world, the 
truest prayer we could utter for the ministry and the 
church is, that God will send quickly to us a body of 
people who first will "go down," and then never stop 
praying until they "go through," and finally become, 
in the highest, best sense of the word, Sky Piercers. 

Such men with their conversation or citizenship in 
heaven; with their face to face life and walk with 
God; and with their ability to bring heavenly things 
down to the needy children of earth; such men are 
Sky Piercers, and are truly as far above the sky- 
scraper in the pulpit as a Norwegian pine is above a 
toadstool, or the palace of a king above a dirt-dauber's 
mud abode or the nest of a mole in the ground. 

THE VISION OF FAITH. 

The father of the writer, was moving his slaves in 
the Yellow Fever Epidemic of the "Fifties" to a place 
of health and safety. He was compelled to pass 



1 6 Q LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

through a town that was scourged with the dreadful 
disease. As a measure of security he caused his 
servants to place sponges of vinegar over their nostrils 
while the wagons conveying them were made to go 
through the streets in a swinging trot. 

As they passed along the almost deserted thorough- 
fares, they observed quantities of bed clothing and 
even excellent wearing apparel evidently thrown aside 
and away upon pavements and streets. It was too 
much for one of the negroes named Nat. Leaping 
from the wagon he picked up several blankets, and 
some clothing which especially tempted his cupidity. 

At once my father cried out to him to cast them 
down; whereupon Nat, with the greatest earnestness 
replied that "nobody wanted them," and that "they 
were as good as new/' and continued to gather them 
up, when my father galloping up tore them from his 
hands and exclaimed, 

"Don't you know that the Yellow Fever is in every 
one of them and they are certain death to you !" 

In this actual incident, Nat well represented the life 
of the senses, while the writer's father, with his 
superior knowledge, warning voice and delivering 
hand, as clearly stood for the action of faith. And just 
as the ignorant negro was saved from an awful plague 
and death through a perception and wisdom pro- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS l6l 

founder than his own, so the soul is rescued and 
delivered from even greater perils by that vision of 
faith which pierces the outer attractive semblance or 
covering, beholds the danger in the beautiful garments, 
the poison in the golden cup, and the poisonous reptile, 
coiled up underneath a mass of gorgeous flowers. 

The natural man only notes the physical and 
temporal which may be grasped by the five senses of 
the body. The trouble, calamity and horror of this 
kind of life, is that the man is attaching himself to, 
and living for things that are soon to pass away and 
be destroyed. It is as if one embarked in a sinking 
vessel; or took flight in a balloon that was on fire. 

Faith looks through, and past, and far beyond the 
body, flesh and time, and gazes with a vision of its 
own upon a viewless soul, an invisible God, and a 
Heaven out of sight. 

Faith sees a bed of roses, but stoops over, parts the 
leaves and blossoms, and marks the pitfall beneath 
studded with sharp spikes to accomplish the ruin of 
the falling victim Faith observes the bait cast toward 
the human life, but lifting its eyes travels up the 
fishing line, then down the whole length of the fishing 
rod, and notes that it is resting in the hands of the 
devil who is the fisherman in the case. Beholding 
these startling things, Faith refuses to bite, and swims 



162 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



steadily and rapidly away. All this explains why the 
man living for the senses is caught, and the man of 
faith goes free, though confronted by the same tempta- 
tion and danger, and angled for by the same great 
tempter. 

WORRYING. 

A lady relative of the writer found a servant 
weeping on the back porch one morning. Asking her 
the cause of her grief, she said she had seen a snake 
in the garden, and got to thinking what if that snake 
had been in the back yard instead of the garden, and 
suppose the little boy of the family had been there, 
and suppose the snake had seen him, and suppose the 
snake had bitten him— and off she went into another 
gush of tears. And yet neither the boy nor the snake 
were in the back yard ! 

The cause of the servant's grief, silly and needless as 
it was, was better grounded than that of some heart 
burdens and mental harassment we have observed in 
life; because the woman did see a snake that morning, 
while others have created their serpents and vipers 
with their own lively fancies. 

A popular book published several years back, 
mentions a character who had the following sentence 
written in big letters above his mantel: "The greatest 
troubles I ever had; never took place." This was only 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 16 g 

another way of recognizing the spirit and practice of 
which we are writing. 

The writer had a grand-aunt who fairly abounded 
and overflowed with worry. When a new barrel of 
flour was bought and rolled into the store-room, she 
immediately looked to the end of it and not its be- 
ginning. Invariably she would say to her husband on 
that very morning: "Mr. G. the flour is out." He got 
to know her so well, that he knew that this strange 
speech of hers properly translated meant that the 
barrel had just been opened. 

One of her Monday morning speeches to her cook 
and washerwoman was: 

"Kitty, here it is Monday morning, to-morrow is 
Tuesday, the next Wednesday— half the week gone, 
and nothing done." 

It was curious as well as amusing to see how she 
got wrought up and highly irritated over her own 
fancy deliverances. 

The habit indicates most unmistakably an utter in- 
ability of self-control ; and he who cannot master him- 
self need not expect to manage others. The great 
political, military and religious leaders of men, were 
famous for their power to be calm and silent under 
criticism, abuse, slander, failure, defeat and every kind 
of catastrophe. 



164 LIVING ILLUSTRATION: 



When 
turned in 



ing a sign of the crushing disappomtm 
come to him through anotner nana. 

must eliminate the spin: :: vr-rr ■ . c..^ ^^s^ J 



eschew the 'ar^ua^e :: w;:::::ng .-...^-.^ L 



FRETTING. 

We once visiteu a iami-y v-. ne 
wife had fumed and worked tne 



worried accent, pl- 
iable, "Dear, will y 
being pulled out ant 

as if she was inviti 
before being put to 
whine w'ould reply. 
w T ould come his tui 
of beefsteak?" — the 
ness as if he had ji 



each word 



st e:: the hearse and uncer~a.<ei 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 165 

drive up to the door for them both, and that there was 
no earthly use in his cutting or his wife eating that 
meat or any other kind of food he could pass her. 

We leave the reader to imagine how long we tar- 
ried at this domicile. 

We believe that thousands of women have been 
goaded to desperation and sin by a worrying man in 
the house, and as truly we are confident that tens of 
thousands of men have been driven from home and 
into crime itself by the cold, unfeeling speech or fret- 
ting, scolding tongue of a woman. 

A house in a county of our native State stands empty 
to-day because of the evil just mentioned, where the 
wife and mother in her own unhappy, exacting, fault- 
finding spirit, caused her husband and two sons to 
leave home forever. The dwelling is a large and beau- 
tiful one, but a woman sits there alone to-day in the 
midst of her pictures, mirrors, waxed floors and care- 
fully covered furniture. She won her stubborn way 
at last. Her will is now supreme. There is no one to 
cross her way or differ from her. She is undisputed 
ruler over everything in sight. But the price she has . 
had to pay is a lot of empty rooms, silent halls, hours 
and days of uninterrupted loneliness, and the unbroken 
absence of those who were nearest to her by the ties 
of blood and the sacred laws of God. 



166 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

We thought once when paying her a pastoral call, 
that it would have been better for her to have had her 
way less, her will crossed, the floors tracked, and the 
furniture disarranged, than to sit in the center of so 
much tidiness and order, and yet surrounded, buried, 
and all but suffocated in such a dreadful, unchanging, 
unending silence and solitude. 

Husbands and sons are not going to stay when 
things are disagreeable at home. They turn naturally 
to places and people where they find peace, congenial- 
ity, companionship, sympathy and affection. 

The sight of men talking, reading and smoking 
together in hotel offices and club rooms, means vol- 
umes of unwritten history of domestic infelicity and 
misery. We do not believe that such persons take 
to these resorts by preference, but in innumerable 
instances, are exiles through failure to find at home 
what every man ought to have, and has a perfect right 
to possess. 

THE UNBRIDLED TONGUE. 

There are some people who take the rag off the sore 
finger and show the cut, bruise and inflamed place to 
all who will allow them. So great is the character 
weakness within that they can keep back nothing per- 
taining to themselves and to others. 

The rule with most young women is that they only 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 167 

need to be introduced and thrown together about one 
hour, when in that time they have turned themselves 
wrong side out, as one would a sack, and nothing more 
is left to tell. A single night together, and now they 
are bosom friends. The home of each is invaded, 
every room vandalized with this confidence in a stran- 
ger, every page of family history offered to the eye 
of the twenty-four-hour acquaintance, every real or 
fanciful affair of the heart exposed, the speeches of 
every friend, lover and betrothed confided with won- 
derful additions— and all to be repeated by each to 
her own social and family circle later, and so the vil- 
lage tattle and the town sensation is born. 

No one can count the times the following sentence 
has been uttered: "I tell you this secret, but what- 
ever you do, you must never tell anybody else." 

We marvel that this fact does not impress the mind 
of such speakers, that if they could not keep their own 
affairs private how could they expect and what right- 
have they to demand that another person will do so? 
And yet they asked the individual to do what they 
could not do. 

All these things evidence the absence of moral 
strength, a backboneless individual, the lack of that 
cool-minded, level-headed, sober self-control which be- 
longs to genuine character. 



168 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



We have seen two women meet, as perfect stran- 
gers on the train, occupy two seats near to each, open 
fire with the tongue, and in less than an hour or two 
they had thoroughly done up family history on both 
sides from the baby who was sick up to the grand- 
mother who had rheumatism, had emptied each other 
on each other, had nothing but the skin left, and now 
looked like the Siamese Twins. 

Recently on the cars we heard a nicely dressed lady 
ask a gentleman how long they would be delayed in 
entering a certain city. He replied kindly but briefly; 
whereupon she proceeded to inform him that she de- 
sired to catch a certain train going south, that she 
lived in Birmingham, that she had been in Wisconsin 
for her health, that she had undergone an operation, 
that she was anxious to get home, that she left a baby 
at home four months old, that she had another child 
six years old, etc., etc., etc.— until the head fairly 
swam, the heart got sick and there w r as a fervent wish 
that the dumb spirits once cast out in New Testament 
times would return and a legion of them possess this 
rattle-brained, clatter-tongued woman who was evi- 
dently born on the side of Tennyson's Brook, which 
he said "went on forever and forever." 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



169 



THE QUARTETTE. 

On a steamer upon the Mediterranean we saw a 
quartette draw a great crowd from all over the ship 
to their neighborhood by their vocal and instrumental 
performances. In the faces lined and clustered out in 
the shadow of the night we beheld every variety of 
temperament, as well as character, both sexes, all 
ages, and a dozen different nationalities. Very mani- 
fest also were the impressions made upon the audi- 
ence. Every countenance, whether coarse or refined, 
whether stamped with heavy browed ignorance or 
bright with intellectual light, yet showed the power of 
the melody upon them as the strains of "The Last 
Rose of Summer/ 5 "Auld Lang Syne," "Ben Bolt/' 
"Sweetest Story Ever Told/' "Home, Sweet Home," 
and "Sweet By and By" stole out upon the night and 
floated clearly over the vessel, in spite of the throb 
of the machinery and the solemn, deep-toned wash of 
the waves. 

We believe that it was the harmony of the singing 
that held the crowd spellbound. A loud mouth dis- 
cord might have first drawn a congregation in curios- 
ity, but could not have kept them. Rather would the 
clamor have driven most of the hearers away. The 
melody drew, and then bound to their places the ever- 
increasing group of listeners. 



170 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

We learned a lesson that night that we have never 
forgotten — viz., that it is the harmony of the Chris- 
tian life and character, and the sweet melody heard 
and felt in Christian love that will draw the people to 
us and to the God who put the music in our souls. 

If we lose the real Gospel strain the people will 
not seek to stay with us. A clamor, racket and noise 
may draw some in a kind of wondering spirit 10 
see what is going on ; but they will not remain to 
tabernacle with what is felt to be discord. Scolds are 
never reformers. Fussers and abusers are soon left 
without a following; and this holds good in every 
realm of life. 

The world with an aching heart, burdened breast, 
distracted mind, and restless soul and life, will never 
be drawn from its misery by jangling and wrangling. 
It has already had its surfeit of vinegar and gall. It 
has had discord in itself in superabundance. If ever 
drawn and held a willing captive, it will be by the 
sweet music of a loving Christian heart and life. The 
melody of the Gospel is the only power we know of 
that can make the passengers of every age, color and 
social grade, leave every part of life's ship and stand 
thrilled, softened, melted and unified, shoulder to 
shoulder and heart to heart, as the machinery of the 
world clanks on, and the waves of the rolling years 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS m 

rise and fall in a solemn, deep-toned wash all about us. 

The company of hearers is a great one. How we 
wish the band of singers could be increased. There 
are so many scolders, fussers, abusers, bangers and 
screamers. How we crave and sigh and pray for 
more singers. It is real Christian love, and genuine 
Gospel kindness and harmony that the world wants 
to see and hear. 

A COLLEGE RECOLLECTION. 

When I was a lad at college, L. 0. C. Lamar, one of 
the famous men of Mississippi, gave an address to the 
Literary Society of which I was a member. In warn- 
ing us against conflicting figures and imagery in 
speeches, he spoke of an orator who once said in a 
flaming address: 

"Mr. President, the apple of discord is rolling in 
our midst; and it must be nipped in the bud; or else 
it will burst forth in a conflagration that will inundate 
the world." 

The boys all laughed, and some of them went forth, 
I doubt not, to be pre-eminently successful on the 
very line our speaker was warning us against. 

It is delightful to both mind and heart to hear a 
preacher take up some figure in prayer and present 
gospel truth through it, not lingering too long upon 



17S 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



it, or leaving too soon. Dr. C. K. Marshall of Mis- 
sissippi, now dead, and Dr. Joseph Parker of London 
excelled in this regard. To hear them was similar in 
effect to seeing one unlock a casket and for minutes 
pull out beautiful, sparkling, precious stones ; or taking 
a rosebud in hand in shape of a text, open and spread 
its folded petals of meaning, and then leave us with 
a full blown flower in our possession forever. 

Sometimes we listen where the figures do not har- 
monize, but we take the will for the deed and say 
"hallelujah anyhow" and get a blessing in spite of the 
present assault of the Devil and the missing work of 
the school master. 

Recently we heard a brother say in testimony, "I 
am on the Rock of Ages steering for glory." 

The metaphor was mixed, but we said "Amen" and 
felt as good as the brother. 

Later still we heard a good brother pray God to 
"Multiply His people like the frogs of Egypt; pour 
on them the oil of gladness; until they became like 
cities set on a hill, and finally be transformed into sol- 
diers of the cross warring a good warfare." 

Here was a decided and woeful mixing up of ideas, 
as well as of figures, but I saw that he meant well and 
responded with the word "Glory" most heartily. More, 
over I saw that the Spirit came down and blessed 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS I73 

the earnest and honest, though incorrect utterances. 

But oh what profound blunders we all commit; yes, 
the wisest of this earth make, as they stand affirming, 
declaring, reasoning, and arguing with the silent, om- 
niscient God listening in the heavens. What do men 
know anyhow? The truly wise man, the one who 
has studied most, and pored over the works of God, 
will say, that what men have learned seems mainly to 
show how little they know and how much there is to 
be acquired. 

Truly! the smartest men ought to talk low, lest 
the angels overhear and laugh at their ignorance. 

THE BATTERY. 

A large, circular building on the right hand side of 
the Battery is pointed out as the place where Jenny 
Lind sang on her first coming to America. The tene- 
ment is now used for emigrant purposes, but one can 
never look at it without thinking of the matchless 
Swedish singer who charmed this country before the 
outbreak of the Civil War. It was a swan-song for 
the death of a million men, and a history of heartbreak 
and woe for many millions more who perhaps had 
rather died. 

As a place where ships have been watched coming 
in or going away, we question whether there is an- 



174 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



other spot on earth that has had crowded upon its few 
acres as much of human hope, longing, grief, agony 
and despair. 

Tennyson speaks of the beauty of the sunbeam that 
falls on a ship which is bringing our friends swiftly 
to us. But he also wrote of the sadness of the light 
"that reddens o'er the sail which sinks w T ith all we 
love below the verge. " 

Both of these emotions have been experienced, and 
many more besides by multiplied millions who have 
paced, stood, or sat musing by the shore of historic 
Battery Park. 

Here came Aaron Burr for years, and looked in utter 
heart weariness over these same waves for a sail that 
never appeared. After his political downfall, all of 
his life was centered in a daughter who was equally 
devoted to him. She lived in North or South Carolina 
and took ship at Charleston to join her father. The 
vessel was captured by pirates, and the fate of the 
young woman has never been known. The father 
refused to believe the dreadful tidings, and would 
come down to this very place and stand for hours 
looking seaward for the incoming of the vessel on 
which she had sailed. But it was one of the ships 
that never get home; and the watcher himself finally 
went down into the grave, yielding his place to ah- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 175 

other and still another. For there is no end to the 
expectant ones on the shore, and who can count the 
boats that never make a landing, and the ships which 
never drop anchor in the Bay. 

In our visits to the Battery we have always been 
struck with the absence of noise and hilarity among 
the people who congregate there after the setting of 
the sun. There seems to be but little conversation 
anywhere. The spirit seems to be one of meditation. 
Many are wearied, doubtless, and do not care to talk. 
But there are others maybe waiting for the ship that 
never comes, and so cannot speak. We saw one young 
woman leaning against a stone pillar with the waves 
breaking at her feet, while for nearly two hours she 
never seemed to turn her eyes from towards the 
ocean. We could but think, as we marked again and 
again the motionless figure and the steadfast seaward 
gaze, that there was a ship in her case as well as with 
others; and that there might be a tragedy in her life 
sadder -nd darker even than that which came to the 
unfortunate Aaron Burr. 

THE PULLET AND OSTRICH EGG. 

Recently we read a little allegory that brought out 
a succession of smiles. The parable said that once 
upon a time there was a young hen that got hold of 



176 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



an ostrich egg somehow, and immediately began 
cackling over it to produce the impression that she 
had laid it. Her master was thoroughly deceived and 
delighted as well, and taking the pullet sold her to a 
man owning a museum at a very great price, assuring 
him that small as the fowl was, she laid eggs equal to 
an ostrich. But the history declared that no more 
ostrich eggs appeared, but simply those of a bantam 
order, for our plagiaristic fowl was a poultry yard 
bird of a very ordinary type. The fable went on 
to say that the original owner of the hen was so out- 
raged and disgusted with the deception and fraud 
practiced upon him, that he took the feathered biped 
to the horse block and chopped her head off. Here 
was the fall of pride in the barn yard world. 

The teaching is that it does not pay for a bantam 
mind to be passing off ostrich eggs in the pulpit. It is 
not required to understand natural history, but simply 
to have good sense, to know that if a man has an 
ostrich intellect he can be giving forth ostrich eggs so 
to speak both on the platform and off the platform, 
and not simply once, but frequently and continually. 
Because of this fact, the bantam is certain to be dis- 
covered. An ostrich sermon followed by bantam 
prayers, conversations, exhortations and a kindred 
agreeing intellectual life sets the people to thinking 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS l77 

and is bound to expose the ecclesiastical pullet. There 
will come the horse block of public opinion, and the 
inevitable decapitation at the hands of a pitiless but 
just judgment. 

If a man has ordinary gifts, he had better not 
attempt the role of the extraordinary. If an ostrich 
egg is laid the people insist that you keep on laying 
just such big beauties. And they have a right to de- 
mand and expect this if an ostrich is on hand. Alas, 
then, for Bro. Bantam. He cannot do this thing. And 
now what awaits him but the hatchet of public judg- 
ment, and the flopping of his own mutilated form 
around in the dust of mortification. The axe and 
block is the certain goal or end of the literary or 
ministerial thief and plagiarist. 

The writer had a young cousin who when a youth 
published as his own, a very remarkable poem in the 
county paper. We were all as proud of him as we 
could be. We were delighted as well, for we thought 
we had an ostrich in the family. Poor Willie, he never 
laid another egg. We listened, looked, and ran to the 
nest, but nothing of the ostrich order was ever again 
seen. One day a book worm member of the family 
connection in his rummaging over the library, ran 
across a little volume of poems written by a gifted 
grand uncle over fifty years before. In this volume 



178 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



was Willie's poem written thirty years before Willie 
was born. The bantam had stolen the ostrich egg. 
Child as we were at the time, we can still remember 
the laughter of the household, and the profound morti- 
fication of Willie as he found himself suddenly dis- 
covered, and collapsed from the imposing size of an 
ostrich to the diminutive proportion of a pullet, and 
an ordinary one at that ! 

THE VISIT OF A FROG. 

In a certain camp meeting, my tent was placed in a 
neck of timber looking down into a valley covered with 
woods. With a desire to have a homelike appearance 
I lighted a little brush fire in front of my canvas 
shelter, knowing that even the Indian wigwam is 
made attractive by this addition, while the hunter's 
camp would be minus its charm if without its fire. 
But the small flame, w T hich I nursed with dry sticks and 
sat before, making out like I had a home when the big 
tabernacle duties were over, was not without its 
drawbacks. My lamplight and firelight together drew 
strange small denizens of the forest up from the 
shadows to investigate and form acquaintanceships. 
So one night a lizard manifested a desire to share my 
bed with me, to which I put in a most vigorous protest. 
Another night a large spider, the size of a silver dollar, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 179 

concluded to spin a web near my pillow: and on a 
third, when the entire camp was asleep and quiet and 
I was writing at my table past the hour of midnight, 
I suddenly raised my eyes and saw a large toad frog 
sitting on the rug in the middle of the tent, blinking 
his eyes and apparently studying me with great inter- 
est. He, with his preceding brethren, were evidently 
puzzled over the gleaming of my lamp and fire, and 
had come up to see "what meaneth this,'" and why the 
longstanding darkness of their forest should thus be 
disturbed and broken into with such a painful thing 
as light. 

I took my lamp, sat it down right before the frog 
and turned the wick up higher, and he never budged. 
He was flooded with light, but seemed to be blinded 
by it. That which was a blessing and comfort to me 
was a mystery and profound discomfort to him. The 
higher the flame, and stronger the radiance the more 
stupid and stolid was the toad. It was only when 
we removed the light that he seemed relieved, jumped 
out of the tent and went hopping down the hill into the 
darkness. He doubtless assembled his friends that 
night in a damp and musty hollow log and told them 
of his late sufferings in a tent where a preacher turned 
something called light on so strong that it was simply 
unendurable, both to the eyes and general feelings of 



180 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

any frog; that with the sun by day and lamps and 
fires by night, all frogs, bats and owls were bound to 
have a hard time, and would be unable to prowl around 
as of yore. That for his part he did not believe in 
light at all, and if it must be had, then let it be for 
only half the time and not interfere with the twelve 
hours of night, in which he desired to follow his 
nocturnal pursuits. And all the frogs and toads and 
bats in his audience, and an old owl listening in a 
hollow tree said— Amen. 

THE DITCH AND ITS LESSON. 

We once read of a man who in the course of his 
walk had to jump a drain. In order to make a 
sufficiently big leap he went back to get a start of one 
hundred yards. This he did, but when he reached the 
ditch, he was so tired that he could not jump at all, and 
had to sit down and rest. 

This same thing taught in allegory what we have 
seen take place a number of times at our camp meet- 
ings. The people as a rule are easy to set off. A 
rousing hymn, a yell or so, a jump or two, a few hal- 
lelujahs, and here they come, and here they go. The 
trouble is that when they arrive at the real work, the 
place where all the faith, strength, vitality, freshness 
and force that can be summoned is needed, behold they 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 181 

have used it up in the preparatory service. They 
exhausted themselves in a skirmish. They are seen 
resting, drooping, languid and worn out on this side 
of the ditch. 

The man who thus precipitates the fight; the leader 
of a congregation, no matter whether he is preacher or 
singer, who in a studied, predetermined way works 
on the feelings of the audience and gets up a whoop 
and hurrah scene in the very beginning of the service, 
has done the meeting as a whole a serious injury. He 
has checked out the capital stock of the audience 
before the real run was made on the bank; he wore the 
energies of the workers out beating the air, thereby 
prevented the gracious results which would certainly 
have been under a wiser course and leadership, and, 
in a word, ended the hour with the ditch unjumped! 

We have only to call the attention of evangelists 
and thoughtful laymen to scenes in the past, where a 
storm had been worked up by some preacher or 
generally by some singer, and where the sermon and 
after service fell perfectly flat. This invariable out- 
come, or rather failure to come, would be charged by 
the unthinking and unobservant to a poor sermon or 
weak altar work. But we have seen the noblest dis- 
courses and strongest of altar workers fail on these 
occasions, and so frequently as to call attention to 



18 2 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

the true source of the trouble, and we have found it 
at such times to be as described — the Gospel army 
was so prostrated by the skirmish that they could not 
stand up in the hour of battle. The race to the ditch 
was so fast and furious that when the runner got 
there he could not jump at all, but had to sit down 
and rest. 

The trouble was not that the Holy Spirit was 
grieved about anything, but the flesh was weak. It 
was not that God's people did not have religion, but 
we lacked sense ! 

Let it be understood that we do not allude to those 
wonderful outpourings of the Holy Ghost which fall 
at any time of the service as God sees fit, and which 
always strengthen and renew the powers of God's 
people, and never weaken worshiper or worship. We 
refer to the worked-up, whooped-up affair that comes 
like a dry wind over the congregation, bringing no 
rain from the skies, leaving no dew on the soul, and 
causing a strange limpness and prostration in the 
audience after the blast has died away. 

SHOUTING BY PROXY. 

One afternoon I heard a great shout from a tent. A 
single voice made the outcry and kept it up. From 
occasional words of the rejoicer I judged some one had 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS I83 

been saved, but I observed that another person was 
doing the shouting. I could not help but think that 
here was a mis-fit. Some one had ptit on some one 
else's shoes or garment. Moreover, the individual 
seemed to keep them. I put questions which revealed 
the fact that the rejoicing was all on one side. 

It brought back a period in my life as the Pastor of 
a city church, when a revival went on continuously 
and many souls were saved. But sometimes all were 
not converted who got the credit of being born again. 
I had a woman full of the Holy Ghost, who had shouts 
for herself and plenty to spare for those who possessed 
none. Just the sight of a relaxing muscle on a sinner's 
face, or a promise to amend his life, or a stepping out 
by faith was more than sufficient to set this good sister 
off. I would be engaged at the altar working with 
the seekers when I would hear a rapturous cry, "Glory 
to God/' etc., and looking up, would see the aforesaid 
female with radiant face, loud cries and clapping hands, 
bending over some man or woman whose face looked 
like a piece of sole leather, as they sat or stood stolidly 
listening to the shouts of the blessed woman of God 
before them, who had in her honest but mistaken heart 
attributed a salvation to them w r hich they did not 
possess. 

Again I saw the shoe was on the wrong foot, the 



194 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

garment had gotten on one to whom it did not belong. 
Evidently there was some kind of mistake. And yet 
it was certainly refreshing to look at the two parties 
and observe that one whose face should have been 
illumined, and lips overflowing, all gloomy and silent; 
while the other, our good sister, supplied every 
deficiency and lack of joy, smiles, shouts, liberty and 
utterance, and did it after the completest manner. 

My mind was next made, to revert to the oriental 
custom of hiring mourners, who carry on tremendously, 
while those who would naturally be expected to be 
grief-stricken, save their own dress, manners and com- 
posure, together with their strength and vitality, by 
this judicious expenditure of money on the employed 
lamenters. There was no question but that the hired 
grievers did the thing to perfection, and swept ahead 
of everything that the family and relatives of the de- 
ceased could possibly have done. 

By an easy transition we thought of the necessity 
of a corps, or trained band of rejoicers and shouters, 
to be used for and by that class of people now being 
swept into the church through card-signing revivals, 
who have not the slightest conception of what real 
salvation is, and who could no more praise God in 
spirit than a dead man could sing, walk, or run. What 
a relief it would be to the dumb-tongued, heavy-heart- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



185 



ed set erf joiners to have some one feel, speak and do 
everything that is usually expected of the saved. By 
all means such a body of hired singers and shouters 
will be needed as the Holy Ghost is more and more 
grieved, and withdraws his quickening, lip-opening, 
and soul-gladdening presence from those churches 
which refuse to honor His converting and sanctifying 
power and be led into the full salvation of God. 

THE DISFIGURED HAND. 

When a youth we read of a man who had a fright- 
fully disfigured hand. It was so scarred and twisted, 
so repellant in shape and color that the eye gladly 
turned from it as an object of vision. And yet the 
daughter of this man, a beautiful girl, as she sat by 
her father would steal her own shapely, beautiful 
palm to the disfigured member before her, and some- 
times pat it, smooth it, and at times hold it in a warm, 
loving clasp. 

Once when sitting on a sofa and thinking herself 
unobserved, she pressed the poor, bent fingers to her 
lips, while she turned such a look of fondness and ad- 
miration on the quiet, thoughtful man beside her, as 
many would have given much to have received. 

Some one unable to repress their curiosity found 
out at last the truth. Several years before, their home 



185 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



had burned up. The daughter then a girl of sixteen 
was in an upper room cut off from relief. Asleep in a 
remote apartment, and every staircase on fire, and not 
a ladder in her suburban home that could reach the 
third story where she was, isolated and unconscious at 
that, of her danger, she was given up as lost even by 
the fire department of the town. When suddenly the 
father broke away from the detaining grasp of friends, 
dashed through the flames, burst into her room and 
wrapping a wet sheet about her form, bore her back 
to safety, but at the cost to himself of a badly burned 
body and the fearfully disfigured member which we 
have mentioned. 

So the hand that was so frightful to others, was 
very beautiful to her; and she could not look upon the 
poor maimed fingers, the silent witness of devotion to 
and sacrifice for her. without the tears leaping to her 
eyes, and the love touch and caress we have described. 

Somehow when we have recalled that circumstance, 
we have been made to think of a countenance that 
Isaiah said was ''''marred": and of "a man of sorrows" 
to whom that countenance belonged. The prophet 
goes on to say. however, that the cruel stripes 
this man received should justly have fallen upon us. 
That he was bruised for our iniquities, that he carried 
our sorrow, and there had been laid upon him the sins 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 137 

and transgressions of us all. The whole career of 
humiliation, pain, grief, and the shameful, awful death 
that followed, all of which caused so many to be 
"offended in him" and turn away from him represented 
a life given up for others, and the most marvellous sac- 
rifice ever made in the universe. 

Perhaps we had all better go slower in our quick 
criticisms and judgments of people before us. The sad 
face we behold may not have a shadow because of 
personal iniquity, but through the transgression of 
others. The lonely life that we think misanthropical 
may be the results of the cold, unnatural feeling of 
others and the exile and solitariness may not be the 
consequence of choice or a true manifestation of dis- 
position. The seedy looking clothes may be worn not 
from preference, but that others might possess better 
garments. The white hair might have been bleached 
not so much from time as from agony of mind. 

Figuratively speaking, the stoop we do not like in 
certain people may have been brought about by the 
bending over and lifting up of very many hearts and 
lives that were found cast down desperately wounded, 
despairing and dying on the roadway of life. 



188 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE ROUND AND FLAT SYSTEM. 

For years we have observed that we have four classes 
of what are called religious teachers in the ministerial 
and evangelistic field. One is propagating doctrinal 
error ; a second division teaches a half truth ; a third 
declares the whole counsel of God; while a fourth 
veers between the last two, according to times, 
seasons, places and personages. 

The individual whom we now refer to proclaims the 
whole truth at a holiness camp meeting, but is evident- 
ly so affected by a certain atmosphere of an annual 
conference, or formal fashionable city church, that he 
acts, expresses himself,, and preaches like another 
man. So this brother is known in two different wavs. 
Two distant classes of people claim a perfect knowl- 
edge of the party, when the truth is they are ac- 
quainted with only one-half of him. He is Brother 
Whole on the camp ground, but is Doctor Half at 
conference and that aforesaid dead city church. 

The case reminds us of a story related by Gov. 
Taylor of Tennessee. He said quite an ordinary man 
had filed an application for the position of teacher be- 
fore the County School Board. One of the examiners 
having a suspicion of the candidate's lack of a great 
deal of general information, asked him whether he 
taught that the world was round or flat. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



189 



The applicant's reply was, "That is according to the 
place where I teach. If my patrons desire it, I teach 
the Round System; if they prefer the other, I teach 
the Flat System." 

We certainly did a lot of smiling when we read this. 
And then the smiling gave way to a good deal of think- 
ing. And the more we thought the less we felt like be- 
ing amused. We well know that our pedagogue aspirant 
has a large body of imitators in the pulpit and on the 
platform to-day. They teach two systems according 
to the church or congregation they confront. They 
boldly proclaim the eradication of the carnal mind, the 
death of the old man at a full salvation camp ground, 
but growth in grace and enduement for service is the 
mild, conservative utterance at the Conference Pente- 
costal service, or in the protracted meeting at High 
Steeple Church. The Round System for the holiness 
camp, the Flat system, and it is indeed Flat, for 
ecclesiastical bodies that do not care for heart purity 
through consecration, faith in the Blood, and a patient 
waiting and dying out at the altar before the great 
congregation. 

Such men are trimmers; man-pleasers ; and moral 
cowards. Like the Tennessee school teacher, they 
"suit their patrons." 

We have heard men in the pulpit preach sermons 



190 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



lauding the heroism of Peter, the independence and 
fearlessness of Paul, the indifference of the disciples 
to the threatenings and persecutions of men ; and yet 
go down with a crash at the very points they admired 
and commended in the apostles. 

Such men quote approvingly and commendatorily 
from the Gospels and the Book of Acts, but would 
never do so again if the Saviour and the fire-baptized 
disciples and the great Apostle to the Gentiles did 
what they and the readers and praisers of these won- 
derful lives are doing continually. 

After the Baptism with the Holy Ghost the disciples 
taught the Round System at all times and places, and 
in face of every changing condition and circumstance. 
If we would be God's true ambassadors, Christ's 
faithful followers, we must do the same. We must 
declare the whole counsel of God. We must obey God 
rather than men. If we please men we are not the 
servants of Christ. 

THE TAILLESS FOX. 

Every now and then the papers report that another 
preacher has declared for the theater, dancing, card 
playing and other kindred things. We can but wonder 
why such men stay in the church and pulpit who have 
drifted so far from spirituality and true holiness. If 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



191 



they have become sinful why not go back at once to 
their crowd" Why try to bring the world into the 
church to suit their depraved and backslidden tastes. If 
they prefer to be degenerated instead, of regenerated, 
and walk with men instead of God, let them "go to 
their own place," as Judas did to his. 

There is a great multitude of Christians in the land 
who cannot be persuaded that Jesus would attend a 
theater, a dance hall or a card playing party; and they 
want to be like Him in all things. Why should they 
forego a heavenly example for a worldly standard be- 
cause every now and then some shorn Samson in 
broad cloth and beaver hat bids his congregation to 
follow him instead of the immaculate cross-bearing 
Son of God. 

JEsop tells of a fox that in some manner had the 
misfortune to lose his tail. But being a fox and quite 
adroit in mental matters, he framed a fine argument 
and glowing speech in praise and defense of a tailless 
body. He urged it was cool to begin with, and such 
a restful deliverance from a burden in that part of the 
physical frame. There was nothing to carry, etc.. 
etc. He then begged his brethren to cut oft their 
caudal attachments and enter into the like freedom 
and advantage which he enjoyed. 

The foxes assembled in convention, listened gravely 



m 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



for a while; but as the} 7 took in their unfortunate 
brother's "bobbed off" appearance, and noted his agony 
in fly time, there was a general smile in the assembly, 
an incredulous look in every eye, and a unanimous 
vote passed that they would not part with that plumy 
appendage which ,a beneficent Providence had be- 
stowed upon them. 

The moral of all this is that when a man loses his 
religious experience, and gets spiritually sheared, 
denuded or "bobbed off" by the world or the devil, at 
once his cry is heard in the land against the severity 
of church rules, and pleading for what he calls tolera- 
tion, broadness and liberty which is only another name 
with him for license in the ways of worldliness and 
sin. He has become a sinner and wants others to fol- 
low. He may have kept the form of godliness, but has 
lost the power, and craves his brethren to be in a 
like condition with himself. 

The newspapers give him credit for being an ad- 
vanced thinker, when he is a retrograding doer. From 
being a Convert he became first a Divert, then a Per- 
vert, and is now a Subvert, posing as a teacher of 
ethics or morals, and applauded by worldlings in and 
out of the church as a Reformer and a kind of second 
John Wesley. But God will show him up at the Judg- 
ment Day, and perhaps even here this side of the grave 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 19 3 

as a spiritual fraud and humbug, a travesty on a Gospel 
Ambassador, and a downright backslider in heart and 
life, and that too, all the while he was attitudinizing in 
the pulpit as a teacher and leader of immortal souls. 



PUZZLING CASES. 

Last week I was called from the city to visit what 
was considered a peculiar case. The family and 
relatives of a certain gentleman thought he was going 
insane. They admitted that he was religious, and had 
claimed to receive the "experience of holiness," but 
they feared he was off his balance, and daily ripening 
for the lunatic asylum. Knowing the man's personal 
liking to me, and also knowing that I was a teacher of 
this "strange doctrine," it was natural that the family 
should desire me to see the "case." I thought before 
visiting the brother, that I understood the "case," as 
it was called. Still, on arriving at the town, I inter- 
viewed others before visiting him. The charges, among 
many were that he kept crying, "Glory!" all through 
the day, sung and prayed aloud in his room, and would 
not talk about anything but salvation. 

I had not been with the much talked-about party 
but a few moments, when I saw that he was sound in 
body, mind and soul. 



194 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

The incident recalled an occurrence quite similar in 
Virginia, when a gentleman received the blessing of 
sanctification, and for days did nothing but laugh, cry, 
shout and praise God. The family physician was called 
in, other doctors were summoned, and, after a reluctant 
consent from the sorrowing wife, papers were made 
out and the brother was landed in the lunatic asylum 
for treatment. 

None of the proceedings in the matter quenched his 
joy. The holy rapture increased, rather than 
diminished, as, unresisting, he entered the gloomy 
abode. Here he talked religion to everybody, sane or 
insane, and with his laughing, crying, testifying and 
exhorting, got some souls saved, and others so con- 
victed and troubled that the Board was glad to get rid 
of him and send him back home. 

It really seems that men are as slow to recognize 
the work of the Holy Ghost to-day, as at Pentecost, 
when, though the Spirit had fallen upon one hundred 
and twenty, some "moeked," and others were "in 
doubt." 

Recently in a night meeting the Spirit fell upon a 
number of souls during the sermon. Some broke 
out in that rapturous, holy laughter so well known to 
holiness people. A gentleman who was present went 
away indignant, and said, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 195 

"He could manage to stand hysterical women in 
every day life, but when it came to a man losing con- 
trol of himself in the church, and laughing right out' 
in meeting, he was done with all such people and 

places, and would come no more." 

And so it happens in these very days, as the Holy 
Ghost works, some mock and some doubt. But thank 
God for that increasing number who are cut to the 
heart and cry out, "Men and brethren, what must we 
do?" The answer is still the same as Peter gave that 
famous day, "Repent and be baptized, every one of 
you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of 
sins— and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 

A BLUNDER OF WISE MEN. 

The papers tell us that on Monday Mt Pelee 
destroyed several vineyards with streams of red-hot 
lava, and showed such signs of disturbance that the 
Governor of the Island appointed a commission of 
scientists to visit the volcano, inquire into its present 
condition, and future intentions, and report back 
promptly to headquarters, or as it turned out to be, 
tail quarters. 

One of these printed reports was found after the 
eruption ; and but for the dreadful fate that came upon 



196 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

the reporters themselves, as well as the whole country, 
it is enough to make every one who reads it smile ; even 
the celebrated Henry of England could not have 
preserved straight facial lines after its perusal, and 
would have "smiled again/' 

The Commission, or Committee of Doctors of 
Science, had been requested to look in the eye, feel 
the pulse, take the respiration, examine the heart, and 
probe well into the eternal economy of Mt. Pelee. 
What an imposing sight those half dozen human 
specks moving up the side of the trembling mountain 
must have presented to the on-looking world. Perhaps 
the arrival of all this incarnated prodigious learning 
increased the agitation of the volcano itself. Anyhow, 
the men of science arrived, investigated, understood 
the whole thing with a few sapient glances, and re- 
ported. So did Mt. Pelee three days later! 
The written declaration of the Solons was, 
"That there would be no more disturbance, that the 
worst was over, and that such was the position of the 
crater and the formation of the valley at the foot of 
the mountain, that St. Pierre was especially safe," 
etc., etc. 

All this was very soothing and gratifying to the 
frightened people of the city, but, like certain famous 
diagnoses of prominent men in the medical fraternity, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 197 

the case was not at all understood, and so, on Thurs- 
day morning Mt. Pelee suddenly made a report of its 
own, and vomited out a hurricane of fire, cubic miles 
of cinders, ashes and lava, and swept multiplied 
thousands to death in three minutes' time. Among the 
destroyed were the men of science who wrote, and the 
Governor who signed the learned paper wherein was 
testified the amiable nature and good intentions of 
Mt. Pelee. 

The whole sad circumstance, aside from other 
teachings, looks like one of the ironies of the divine 
providence, and there are many. The wisest men are 
met so frequently in nature and life with flat denials 
of their statements and utter failures in fulfillment 
of their prognostications, that it would seem to be 
enough to convince all of the ignorance as well as 
the helplessness of the race. 

The word "science" is taken from the Latin "scio," 
which means to know. Who gave this name to these 
men? Was it done innocently or in satire? For after 
saying all we can about human knowledge of God's 
works, how inconceivably vast and profound is the 
ignorance which remains. 

Already we have had four different theories about 
earthquakes. Numbers of times we have been told 
that the world is rapidly cooling off, when Mt. Pelee 



198 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

breaks into the conversation with its hoarse voice, 
crying out, 

"Certainly — but after this fashion." 

A FEMALE SHAKER. 

Recently in one of our meetings a woman suddenly 
filled with the Spirit, laid hold of a man at the altar and 
gave him such a shaking as we doubt not he had not 
experienced since his mother got hold of him when he 
was a child. The person had been a seeker at the altar 
for days, and the woman doubtless in her heart agony 
wanted to bring him through and over into Canaan by 
physical means. 

We thought the individual would never come back 
to the services, and that only harm would result from 
the way he had been handled. But that very night he 
ordered fifteen of our books, and sought what he was 
after in spiritual lines more diligently than ever. 

We know that right now some of our readers are 
saying that it would be a good idea for that Shaker 
sister to be employed to go around in our various 
meetings, give the men a thorough hand manipula- 
tion, and thereby help them spiritually and increase 
the sale of our literature. But we are not certain 
that all would act like our good brother. 

We do believe, however, that a great many people 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 199 

need a thorough shaking, and some a regular whipping. 
All of us recall how the discipline of the peach switch 
improves children, and how chastened, subdued, 
well-behaved and obedient they are for days after this 
domestic application has taken place. 

What are men and women but grown up children? 
And we all know a number that means of grace, 
courtesy, forbearance, sacrifice and love have alike 
failed with. They need a whipping. 

We know others that show themselves so coarse, in- 
sulting, so bereft of every instinct of true refinement 
and gentility, that we are forced to believe that nothing 
but a genuine dressing down, a regular old-time 
thrashing, will ever make such people behave them- 
selves. 

We have to-day in our midst men of ruthless pens 
and tongues, who scruple not to attack and slander 
the people of God on every occasion. Their safety in 
doing so thus far, lies in the Christ-like spirit of the 
persons they have abused and traduced. If they had 
said of Avordly, unconverted people, only a small part 
of what they have spoken about the servants of God, 
these same people of the world would have caned and 
thrashed them. And we doubt not this kind of casti- 
gation would have done them a world of good. 



200 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



UNCONCEALABLE JOY. 

A man got on the cars very much amused about 
something. His face was fairly covered with smiles 
of the deepest order. As he came aboard he tried his 
best to straighten his countenance, but the facial linea- 
ments would not be regulated. The hand was applied 
in a rubbing and smoothing out movement all in vain. 
One set of mirthful wrinkles would only disappear to 
give way to another. The party did his best to look 
grave as he encountered the cold, speculative eyes and 
icy demeanor of the passengers. He pulled his beard 
and attempted a severe and thoughtful expression, but 
the failure was complete and absolute. He next sank 
back in his seat, turned up his coat collar, and pulled 
his hat down over his eyes, but even then we could see 
his shoulders shaking and felt that the smiles had 
arisen to the hat bands. 

Evidently it was a good thing he had; there could 
be no question of that. And now to the point and 
conclusion of the matter; in less than five minutes 
everybody in the car was in a smile or broad grin. 
The man's spirit had permeated and metamorphosed 
the crowd. He had conquered without a word. 

Of course I had to make an application, and said: 
O, that we all had an experience so bright and glad 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 201 

and overflowing that everybody could see it before 
we had a chance to tell them, that people would be 
made to hunger, thirst and fairly pine for the bless- 
ing just from what they would behold in us. 

To do that, however, Ave must have a smile that 
ascends to the hat bands, and a joy that no cold 
critical audience can dampen, much less take away. 

We have seen a few of the hat-band order; and a 
remarkable thing about them was that they had not 
gone into sidetracks. Their joy sprung from a clean 
heart and a constantly indwelling Christ. They would 
not allow themselves to be switched off on solitary 
features of the gospel, or on visions, or third ex- 
periences, but stayed on the "main line." Hence in- 
stead of becoming scolders, fretters, sourly orthodox,, 
etc., they kept sweet and bubbling over with joy. 

Lord, increase the smiling, level-headed tribe. 

EVERYTHING IS QUIET BISHOP. 

When in the pastorate and in attendance upon the 
annual conference, there was a stereotyped phrase 
used by many of the brethren in giving their reports 
to the Bishop which has become lithographed on our 
memory. The expression was, "Everything quiet, 
Bishop." This speech seemed to give great satisfaction 
to the conference in general, was met by a smile or 



202 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

beaming look of approval from the chairman addressed, 
and was uttered evidently in a tone of triumph and 
self-endorsement by the speaker. 

The impression made on the assembly was 
that a sensible, level-headed man had just finished 
speaking, and one w r ho could be entrusted with the 
largest and most difficult 6 appointment in the whole 
connection. In fact the presiding elder said so, after 
Brother Level-Head had retired to have his character 
and report voted on ; the approval coming in the form 
of a waved hand, commending look, and an oily 
affirming sentence, "Safe case, Bishop." 

And yet there had not been a single revival in Bro. 
Level-Head's w r ork for the entire term of four years. 
Nor had there been a solitary conversion; only some 
accessions by letter, and a lot of church entertain- 
ments. So the words he had spoken about his ap- 
pointment in which he said, "Everything is quiet," 
meant "Everything is dead." And the man, the pre- 
siding elder called a "safe case" was in fact a "metallic 
case" if he was not the "undertaker" himself in the 
midst of an ecclesiastical graveyard. 

If the Bible is true, and the war is still on between 
Heaven, Earth and Hell, then things ought not to be 
"quiet." A mere glance at the Gospels and the Book 
of Acts will show the reader matters were anything but 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



203 



"quiet" in the time of Christ and the disciples. Nor 
was there peace in Paul's day, nor in the days of 
Luther or Fox or Wesley. Or in these present years, 
unless church and pastor have surrendered to the 
world, and now led into spiritual captivity far from the 
Gospel battlefield, say from the midst of an idle, in- 
glorious exiledom "Everything is quiet !" 

"DOING NICELY, THANK YOU." 

An expression used continually at the telephone by 
nurses and other attendants of a hospital is strikingly 
similar in its significance and suggestiveness to the 
phrase we have just mentioned, "Everything quiet, 
Bishop." 

If the reader doubts it, let him call up some clerk, 
nurse or hospital functionary who is allowed at the 
telephone, and put the query relative to some patient 
in one of the many wards, when back without a 
moment's hesitation will come the cheery response, 
"Doing well, thank you." 

This as will be readily seen is an easy way of 
getting rid of a troublesome questioner, and also of 
the imputation of not knowing everything that is 
going on in an Infirmary of a thousand inmates. 

One day a gentleman anxious about a friend and 



204 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



acquaintance in a large hospital, called up the institu- 
tion by phone and put the question : 

"How is Mr. S getting along ?" 

Back came the prompt reply in a chirpy female 
voice : 

"Doing nicely, thank you." 

Much relieved the interlocutor hung up the receiver, 
and turned back to his work at his desk. Later in the 

afternoon he met the brother of S and said 

cheerily: 

"I am so glad your brother is doing so well at the 
hospital." When the grave, shocked reply was: 

"Why, Charles has been dead and buried three 
days !" 

Let the reader apply the words to some preachers' 
reports of their churches; and to some people's 
testimonies concerning themselves; and to certain 
creed statements of religious bodies in our midst; and 
while we hear the parrot like utterance, with the sickly 
smile attending it "Doing nicely, thank you;" yet in 
addition to it all and over all sweeps upon us a higher 
voice which announces, 

"They have been dead and buried lo these many 
days, months and years." 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



205 



REMORSE. 

We once knew a woman who had the rule or 
ruin spirit so painfully and insufferably dominant in 
her life, that her large, beautiful home was deserted 
first by her stepchildren and later by her own sons and 
daughters. She was left in the midst of empty rooms 
and silent halls and lonely porches, without a soul to 
cross her will. She had everything her own undisputed 
way now with a vengeance. But how still the house 
was ! How empty were the chairs ! How reproach- 
fully the portraits of the absent ones seemed to gaze 
upon her from the walls ! They appeared to be say- 
ing, you drove us from the house of our father, and 
from the home God intended we should have. 

Finally she moved to a dwelling two miles away. 
On pleasant summer evenings she sometimes walked 
to the brow of a range of hills which commanded a 
beautiful far away view of the old home and planta- 
tion. There she would stand silently gazing in that 
direction without a word falling from her lips, but for 
all that we believe with a breaking heart. Her husband 
and two children were in the cemetery, and the rest 
of the household were scattered over the broad land 
never to return. And they never did return. Mean- 
time what had this solitary woman to live for? 



203 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



One day at sundown, while standing on the hill 
looking, as she often had done before,, at the faraway 
mansion and the grove surrounding it, the great plan- 
tation bell that was always rung at sunset, and which 
she had so often heard in happier days, commenced 
ringing in the distance and came softly pealing over 
the fields to her ear. She was a woman of few words 
and possessed an impassive, almost stony face, so that 
it was difficult to tell often what she thought and felt. 
But on this special occasion, as she turned suddenly 
from the lofty outlook, we saw her before she could 
school or mask her features, and if ever we beheld 
anguish in a countenance we saw it in hers. It seemed 
to us that her agonized soul was standing in her eyes 
wringing its hands with a wild regret over something 
in the past that could not be spoken of, and that never 
could be remedied. 

She had her own way, but in that way she lost her 
own happiness, her influence for good, the affection of 
husband and children, while the home itself had been 
as thoroughly wiped out and destroyed as by the hand 
of a Goth or Vandal. 

A COFFEE REVIVAL. 

In my Sunday afternoon meetings I often find that 
speakers and lecturers are dividing the crowd with 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 207 

me in other halls, or churches, in the same city. Some- 
times their subjects gladden me, and again I am dis- 
appointed and grieved. But at one of my late appoint- 
ments I had a rival at the 3 o'clock hour in a neigh- 
boring church \yhose subject and mission astonished 
me. He was trying to start a 'Temperance Coffee 
Society." Not temperance in coffee drinking, but 
coffee versus liquor. 

So the notices had been duly read from church 
pulpits, and the church members of different de- 
nominations gathered to hear a minister of the Gospel 
preach the Gospel of Coffee. It was a coffee meeting, 
intending to lead up to a Coffee Revival. 

In another part of the city I was holding up the 
precious Blood of Christ as the great and only remedy 
for any and all sin, for any and all habits, and for any 
and all people. We had great liberty, Heaven smiled, 
the Spirit fell upon the Word, and about fifty souls 
were saved and sanctified. 

As we thought of the preacher around the corner, 
holding up coffee and pointing to coffee as the hope 
and deliverance of the drunkard ; then asking for funds 
to start a coffee shop down town to deliver men from 
strong drink, we had another view of the times, in the 
looking of the people in every direction except the 
right one for help and deliverance; and in the taking 



208 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



up of false Christs, and no Christs rather than the true 
and only Redeemer for the rescue and salvation of the 
soul. 

We would like to have seen some of the sermon 
notes of our Coffee Preacher. Doubtless the leading 
heads were: (1) Chicory, (2) Rio, (3) Java, (4) 
Mocha, with subdivisions of (a) sugar, (b) milk, (c) 
cream. Then would come the exhortation and altar 
call, "Come to Coffee." His musical instrument should 
not have been an organ, but a Coffee Mill. 

THE LARGER BUILDING. 

One day in a large city, we obtained a striking 
spiritual lesson in the study of a new City Hall 
building. 

We had heard with regret that the former edifice, 
which covered a full block, was to be torn down and 
replaced with another. The first was quite handsome, 
and with its Corinthian columns and graceful 
architectural lines had repeatedly won our admiration 
as we passed by. 

The city in the work of change removed half of the 
old, and erected half of the new structure. So that the 
two stand now side by side, and making a contrast so 
marked in favor of the new, over against the old, that 
it only requires a glance to see the difference. Then 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



209 



as we look at the recent building, with its majestic 
pillars, lofty walls, spacious chambers, broad windows 
letting in floods of light, we wonder how Ave ever could 
have been satisfied with the ancient structure. 

The reason was that there was nothing better in 
sight, nothing to measure by, contrast with and over- 
top it. Xow a glance shows the second to rank far 
above the first in every respect. 

So we reasoned it only needs to place entire sancti- 
fication by the side of regeneration to reveal the 
superiority of the second work to the first work of 
grace. The strength, the bigness, the loftiness, the 
perfectness of the blessing is never seen to greater 
advantage than when placed in a church or a revival 
meeting by the side of those who are only regenerated. 
AA "hat a difference there is between peace with God, 
and the peace of God, between love and perfect love, 
between life and abundant life, between having a 
measure of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. 

Let it be remembered that Ave are speaking of the 
genuine article; not the make believe, or mere say so; 
but the actual blessing of holiness and the faithful,' 
devoted life which follows. 

The difference between the disciples after and be- 
fore Pentecost is well shadowed both materially and 
architecturally by the new City Hall in Chicago. It 



2iQ LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

should as well declare to-day, the superiority of the 
sanctified soul and experience and life over that of the 
regenerated. 

Let the people take a look at it, and receive a hint, 
a sermon, an exhortation and an inspiration. 

WORKERS MISJUDGED. 

The spiritual condition of a community can alter 
when there has been no change in the heart of God's 
messenger and ambassador. For instance, every 
Christian worker, preacher or evangelist knows how 
easy it is to secure a revival in a place where there 
has never been one. Wonderful are the results of 
that meeting, but what of the second? The pulpit 
victor goes away and returns in a year, and it is as 
though he was bombarding a Gibraltar. He is the same 
man— a spiritual Samson— but things have taken 
place in his absence, an opposition developed, and 
a mental and moral condition reached which made 
Christ Himself turn from certain localities because 
"He could there do no mighty work/' 

Conditions change. We once held a meeting in a 
large city, and in a Methodist church where holiness 
as an instantaneous second work had never been 
preached. We had from seventy-five to one hundred 
at the altar at almost every call, the power came down, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 211 

and lions were being slain and quartered every day. 
From that meeting we went directly to another large 
city to a church where they had had every kind of 
evangelist, and every kind of revival. We looked 
around for a lion. We waited to kill one. We had 
come prepared. But behold, there was before us 
nothing but bleating sheep. So we hid the jaw-bone 
with which we had expected to kill a thousand 
Philistines, and a jungle of lions thrown in, and tak- 
ing some good gospel meal, moistened it with the 
Water of Life, and crying out "CoNanny," quietij 
fed the sheep. 

Cheer up, my brother. Don't listen to the croakers 
who never killed anything larger than a mosquito in 
the religious life in all their days. They would have 
you make brick, and at the same time furnish both 
mud and straw. They would have you kill the lion 
before it was born, or God had allowed it to come 
down the road to meet you. When it does come, I 
believe you will rend it as one would a kid, and have 
nothing in your hands. As for the skin, you can send 
it as a kind of rug to the person to sit and think upon, 
who said you had lost your power. 



218 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



HOME TALENT. 

We do wish that all the preachers and communities 
calling us to hold meetings for them would have wis- 
dom and faith enough to say, bring a first-class singer 
with you. Some of them do, but the majority write, 
"We do not need a singer; our home talent is amply 
sufficient. " 

O that "home talent!" At first we were quite im- 
pressed with the expression or phrase. We saw 
masters and mistresses of song. Jenny Linds in dis- 
guise, all tuned up and waiting to burst forth in floods 
of melodious praise, that would fairly transport the 
audience, and be as well a profound inspiration to the 
evangelist. 

In some cases the home talent, taking no stock in 
full salvation, or any other kind of redemption would 
present a line of frozen figures and icy faces on the 
Sabbath, and be seen no more until the following 
Sunday. 

In other instances, the heme talent could more prop- 
erly be called the home talons, the way their discordant 
and out-of-tune voices tore and rent the hearing of the 
ear and the sensibilities of the soul. In one of our 
meetings, while several nasal voices were yowling like 
a certain domestic pet that we shall not name, a poor 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 01 * 

little kitten, evidently attracted by the sound, came in 
from the street and walked down the aisle in the 
direction of the home talent. We had a lively 
suspicion at the time that the kitten labored under a 
mistake and thought it had heard the voice of its 
mother. 

The home talent confines itself to hymn, that have 
been sung out of all their freshness and force for ten 
or twenty years. The leader, or preacher, will sweetly 
announce to the audience that they will sin g piece, 
that everybody knows. Whereupon the well-worn 
often-threshed melodies are rendered in connection 
with certain "flat" or falsetto accompaniments, and 
the efrect-mental,moral, physiological, psychological 
neurological and craniological-can well be imagined 
It stands to reason in this age of specialties, that a 
man who puts his all in the work of conducting the 
singing of a religious gathering or meeting, will do 
far better than a cluster of young or old folks who 
know httle of music and nothing about revival work 
Then we should never forget that the Spirit is giviW 
new songs continually to the church, and that in ad 
dition to the power the Holy Ghost bestows to the 
hymn there is another force still which arises from 
its newness and freshness. 



214 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE BITTER SPIRIT. 

Does the loud-spoken, quick-retorting, angry- 
browed, razor-tongued Joab-stabbing, Doeg-reporting, 
and Judas-plotting individual claiming salvation, re- 
mind any one of the patiervt, gentle, long-suffering, 
unresentful and loving Christ? 

Who is likely to get under conviction through such 
a misrepresentation of the Saviour ; whose heart will 
melt and break over the snapping and snarlings of 
this wolf who has pulled a sheep's skin over his brown 
hide, and would try to make an outward profession 
take the place of an inward condition and nature? 

If the thirteenth chapter of I. Corinthians could be 
likened to a coat or dress, what a time some avowed 
Christians would have in getting it on and making it 
fit ! How it would hitch up on the fourth verse ; how- 
it would pucker on the fifth, and what a tearing and 
rending on the 7th! 

Suppose that I. Peter, chapter 2, verses 19-23 was a 
garment— Tor this is thanksworthy, if a man for 
conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrong- 
fully f "If when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take 
it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even 
hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered 
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 315 

his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in 
his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not 
again; when he suffered he threatened not; but 
committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." 
What a time some of God's professed people would 
have getting this character garment on. It would 
never fit them in the world. And if they do not wear 
it in this life, they cannot do so in the life to come, 
here is no alteration of doctrine at death. There is no 
cutting out of new patterns at the grave. A loveless, 
pitiless soul on earth is a loveless, pitiless soul in 
eternity. There is nothing in a bunch of death rat- 
tles to take the scold and hate and revenge out of a 
human soul. It takes away the power to indulge 
this spirit in this world any more, but in no wise 
changes the man himself— who enters Eternity as he 
left Time. The tree lies as it falls. He is unjust still. 
He is filthy still. He is bitter and hating and hateful 
forever. 

We have read letters written by one professed 
Christian to another that reminded us of cupping 
glasses and mustard plasters. We have seen paragraphs 
and editorials in church journals, and full salvation 
papers where the sentences looked like uplifted 
swords and pointed bayonets, and where the periods 
created the impression of bullets. And these same 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

articles were as pitiless as weapons of war. And they 
were oftentimes directed upon men and women who 
not only loved God, but were serving him faithfully 
years and years before the writer of the onslaught had 
gotten out of bibs and tuckers and long before they 
had ever tasted for themselves the grace of God. 

A MAN WHO LOOKED LIKE CHRIST. 

A few years ago we read in the newspapers of a 
strange occurrence which took place in a court house 
in a California town. 

A chancery case was in progress, and a lawyer was 
speaking, when suddenly the judge became conscious 
that the attention of every one in the room was 
leaving the speaker, and was becoming fastened on an 
individual who was standing by himself in a remote 
part of the house. The lawyer himself noticing that 
his words were not heeded, followed the general gaze, 
and as his eyes fell on the man, became silent and 
fixed in his look like all the rest. 

The individual exciting the interest, drawing the 
attention of the whole audience, and stopping the 
entire proceedings of the court so that a death-like 
silence prevailed, and that too without speaking a 
word, was a Greek priest, who was connected in some 
way with the case in chancery. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS glT 

The remarkable fact that drew every eye upon him 
was his startling resemblance to the Saviour, according 
to the most generally approved likeness of the Lord 
as seen in Fleetwood's Life of Christ, and the pen 
picture said to have been written by a Roman hand at 
the close of the Saviour's life on earth. 

The man had dark auburn hair parted in the center 
and falling upon his shoulders. The face was oval. 
The brow and eyes gentle, tender, serious, almost 
melancholy. The beard golden brown and parted. 
The manner thoughtful and abstracted. While the 
form was clothed in a white robe that descended in 
an inch of the floor. 

And this man, without speaking a word, for fully 
ten minutes completely locked up the proceedings of 
a large court and brought the entire business to a 
dead stand still ! And all this was produced because he 
happened to look like Christ! 

From the time we read this occurrence in the 
papers, we have understood better what the Bible says 
about the effect of Christ breaking through the clouds 
at the Last Day upon the vision of an astounded, 
horror-stricken and despairing world. 

We are not left in doubt at all about the returning 
person and presence of the Son of God to this earth 
and its effect upon the nations. 



218 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



"Behold he cometh with clouds !" said John, "and 
every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced 
him; and all* kindreds of the earth shall wail because 
of him." And Paul adds, and "every knee shall bow, 
and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord to the glory of God the Father." 

A LOCOMOTIVE PARABLE. 

An evangelist, in conducting a testimony meeting 
one day in a large Southern city, said to the audience, 
"If the Christian life was to be described under the 
figure of a locomotive, which part would you rather 
be?" 

There were a number of prompt answers which 
elicited smiles and laughter, and some deep responses 
of approval. One wanted to be the whistle and let the 
people know the Gospel train w r as coming. Another 
wished to be the bell, and warn souls of danger. A 
third would be a coupler and join the churches to- 
gether ; a fourth was willing to be the cowcatcher and 
save people who were in peril; and a fifth desired the 
office of a brakeman, to slow things down if they got 
dangerously fast. 

Finally after many answers of this order, one of the 
best laymen in the city arose to his feet and fixed his 
eyes on the leader of the meeting. Felt and known by 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



219 



all to be a thoroughly good man, his testimony was 
waited for in profound silence. But owing to some 
kind of deep, inward emotion that was evident to all, 
he did not speak for fully thirty seconds. He then, 
with a husky voice said, 

"I would like to be the black coal thrown into the 
furnace and there burn for the glory of God." 

He sat down, and for a whole minute there was not 
a word heard in the assembly. But there were many 
wet eyes and swelling hearts in the crowd. All felt 
instinctively that the most beautiful and forcible 
speech of the morning had been uttered in that simple 
sentence. A true and Christ-like sentiment had been 
uttered, and it had been spoken by a true and Christ* 
like man. 

A window of heaven seemed to have been opened 
for a moment just above the heads and hearts of the 
audience and a flower of the skies pure and beautiful 
had been dropped. An angel flying past shook some- 
thing from his snowy wing upon the souls of the people, 
and it was of a tenderness and sweetness beyond any- 
thing that earth could manufacture. A Sacrifice of 
God had stood up in the congregation, and the spirit 
that was burning in his own heart and life had 
warmed and melted and fired the souls of scores of 
his fellow Christians. The symbolism of the Levitical 



220 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



or Old Testament Dispensation was again vindicated; 
and the possibility, actuality and perpetuity of the 
Burnt Offering shown that very morning, in the fact 
that one of them was even then standing in their 
midst. 

"WHERE'S THEM BOYS." 

One afternoon, while walking from the camp ground 
into town, two lads of twelve or thirteen years of age 
passed me in a rush and disappeared over a swell in 
the road. A minute afterward a much smaller boy 
came running around a street corner with great 
blubbering and lamentation, and looking up the street 
as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, cried, 
"Where's them boys?" 

In reply I motioned with my hand up the road. 
Immediately the little fellow, breaking into fresh out- 
cries, started in pursuit. As I stopped a moment and 
viewed the vanishing scene, I said, There is the human 
side of salvation in a nutshell, so to speak; and as for 
an illustration of the necessary compound and beauti- 
ful agreement of repentance, faith and works, it could 
not be surpassed. As for the lad's pungent grief, there 
could be no doubt in his broken voice and streaming 
tears; as for the faith, the way the youngster took up 
the road and looked up the thoroughfare it was evident 
that he fully believed he would overtake those from 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



221 



whom he had been separated, and whose companionship 
he longed for ; as for works, that feature was unmistak- 
able in the manner in which the boy's feet struck the 
ground. It was a movement both rapid and contin- 
uous. The case was clear that, while the little chap 
fully trusted in obtaining the desire of his heart, he 
nevertheless felt it was imperative to do the very best 
he could under the circumstances — and he did so. 

Twenty minutes later, in returning from town and 
extending my walk up the highway, I came upon the 
three boys. They were together at last. The little fellow 
had overtaken the other two, and when I saw him he 
was perched on the back of his brother and looked 
perfectly radiant, while he pointed his fingers at some- 
thing he saw in the fields beyond and jabbered away 
in the greatest glee. He looked like he had been at 
the altar and received a blessing. In fact, his appear- 
ance indicated that he had obtained what he had come 
after, and was now clear through. I quietly framed 
the whole picture, hung it up on the walls of memory 
and named it Repentance, Faith and Works, or the 
Price of the Goods. 

THE WIRE FENCE POSTS. 

In coming West, we were struck with the almost 
endless lines of wire fence on either side of the rail- 



222 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



way track. By and by we noticed that the sup- 
port consisted of a number of very slim looking and 
weak strips or staves of wood, while at intervals of 
twenty to thirty feet stood a strong, stout post. There 
were six to ten of the former to one of the latter. 

Of course we got a lesson. How could it be other- 
wise, when we see the church, and the holiness cause 
itself appearing in like manner before our eyes. All 
interwoven in the movement of our Holy Christianity 
we find a great number of people. They look like they 
are holding up the cause ; but they really do not. They 
shake in every wind of ridicule and persecution; and 
if certain strong supports were removed here and 
there, down the whole line would go. They attend 
meetings, sit on the benches, join in the singing, help 
to swell the congregation; but the great pressure is 
not on them. They keep the wires apart, but they do 
not hold up the fence! 

A closer investigation reveals here and there, all 
across our broaa country, devoted, godly men and 
women that are truly enduring the trials, and bearing 
the burdens connected with a pure and full salvation. 
Brother and Sister Post, patient, loving, liberal and 
strong are in the human sense holding up the fence 
across the continent. They are not numerous like the 
other class spoke of; but they keep up the fence. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 223 

It is a long one, running from Maine to California; 
and the storms great, and snows deep along the line. 
Then there are many weak slats interwoven among 
the wires. Few of them seem to be in the ground. 
But we have marked the Post Brigade, upon whom God 
in his providence has nailed the wires and with whom 
connected the scantlings,— and having beheld them, 
we have had a 'Three Tavern" experience like Paul, 
who when he met certain of the brethren, "thanked 
God and took courage." 

We believe that this human fence, long as it is, and 
thin looking as it is in certain places, yet is going to 
stand ! 

THE BANNERLESS BUILDING. 

One day in a walk down Pennsylvania avenue we 
noticed that every department building of the govern- 
ment had a great United States flag flying over the 
roof of the big structures but the Treasury building. 
Not a banner floated over it. Only bare poles were 
in sight. 

This absence of the bright-hued pennon of the 
country might have been accounted for by the sick- 
ness of the Secretary. But seen, or rather unseen, as 
it was in the present time of financial depression and 
money lack, and bank closing and breaking, it was 
quite significant and suggestive to the musing mind. 



224 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



We could not keep from moralizing to the effect 
that when there is an inward lack and depression in 
the soul, the flag of testimony is not seen fluttering 
over the life fanned by the breezes of Heaven. Just 
as when Uncle Sam has seen brighter and easier days 
financially in the land over which he rules, and was 
consequently and proportionately happy, with flutter- 
ing flags and banners ; so the soul instinctively hoists 
up pennons of gladness, real conscious fullness ,and 
pulls them down when things inside become lean and 
low. When something gets the matter with the Divine 
Deposit in the heart; when something interferes 
with the spiritual currency of the soul, the flag on top 
of the house droops and is taken down from the pole. 

How glad we ought all to be that God's Bank never 
suspends or breaks. His Treasury is always full He 
honors every check in the words "I Promise You" 
when it is presented at a window or door called the 
Mercy Seat, and the Throne of Heavenly Grace. He 
invites customers who are flat broke. He is delighted 
to have a Run on His Bank, and it is a matter of 
record in the Bible, and a fact of human experience all 
through the ages, that He never turned a single soul 
empty away, who came properly, as laid down in the 
Word of God. 

Over the great center dome of the Bank is the in- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS , 22 5 

scription, "Ask largely that your joy may be full !" In 
lower lines is the statement, "He is able to do ex- 
ceeding abundantly above all that you am ask or 
think!" 

The idea of our spirits ever falling, with such a 
Bank to check on ! The superlative folly of our pulling 
the bright flag of testimony and joyous experience 
down when our Heavenly Father has an inexhaustible 
Treasury, and declares that we who love and follow 
Him are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus 
Christ !" 

IGNORANCE OF SCRIPTURE. 

When Mr. Ingersoll was on the Pacific coast lectur- 
ing against the Bible, some twenty years since, he 
encountered at the close of one of his addresses a 
Methodist preacher of a clear head, quick wit and 
forcible speech. 

This minister was stationed on the coast then, and 
is still living, though now superannuated. He attended 
the infidel's lecture in order to get his points, and at 
its close was introduced. Mr. Ingersoll asked him how 
he liked his address. The preacher begged to be ex- 
cused, saying that his reply would certainly not please 
the speaker. But the skeptic insisted, saying that he 
really wanted to know what people thought of what 



226 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

he said, and he desired especially to be informed in 
this instance. 

The preacher looked steadily upon the degenerate 
son of a Presbyterian pastor and replied : 

"As I heard your garbled and incorrect quotations 
of the Bible, I was, and still am, undecided, whether 
to put you down as a knave or fool." 

Mr. Ingersoll was both nettled and discomposed, 
and quite a heated controversy followed. 

Finally the preacher asked the privilege of relating 
an incident of his own personal knowledge, which he 
said would throw more light on Mr. Ingersoll's posi- 
tion. 

He said that at one of his protracted meetings held 
when he was a presiding elder, a woman arose during 
the testimony service and said, "I have a great many 
trials and tribulations as I am journeying home. But 
through all my trials and sorrows along the way I have 
had for my strength and comfort this blessed verse of 
Scripture, "Grin and bear it !" 

After the laughter of the surrounding group had 
died away, the preacher solemnly shaking his finger 
at the infidel said: 

"Mr. Ingersoll, you show as profound ignorance of 
the Bible as did this woman, and yet have not one- 
millionth part of her piety." 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



227 



THE SMALL CANINE. 

We have seen certain animals of the canine genus 
and terrier and pug species rush forth from a shelter- 
ing verandah and bark most vociferously at everything 
that passed by, and which did not belong to or come 
out of the lot and residence where the little excited 
yelper lived. It was both amusing and wearying to 
behold this diminutive scene of needless excitement, 
wasted Liliptian energy, and resultless endeavor. 
Everything and everybody went on up the street and 
road just the same as though no little barker and 
snarler was left behind, all hidden in a cloud of dust 
made by wagon wheels it could not stop, or was 
trotting sideways back to his rug on the porch to lie 
down and wait for something else at which to pre- 
cipitate its tiny clamor, all unheard by the objects 
themselves. 

Life is full of such scenes in higher planes, and few 
of us have not rushed out and clamored at great and 
misunderstood things, at bigger lives and characters 
than our own, found we failed to stop the procession, 
went back to our own little humble rug, and noticed 
that the only thing we had gathered for our pains was 
a lot of grifty dust which got into our angry eyes, and 
and went down our open vociferating mouth. 



228 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

We have observed other animals of big form and 
watchful eye, stretched on the ground in a side yard, 
that commanded a view of both front and back gates. 
This quieter looking canine did not use his strength in 
needless barking and rushings out upon the street at 
things that must be and that he could not alter or 
prevent; but he reserved his power for rael danger and 
genuine service, and so the family silver remained 
secure, and the household was kept safe and un- 
disturbed both day and night. 

This second scene also became a parable, and found 
higher fulfillment in the lives and achievements of 
many in the church of Christ to-day who are not up 
and out rushing after everything that comes down the 
road, but all the same their watchful eyes, steady lives 
and noble characters keep matters wonderfully safe 
and protected where they are. 

Experience then teaches that it is good to move 
from the mat on the top step of a profitless worry, and 
take a position midway of the premises where the 
critical,, important and essential are to be watched, 
guarded and preserved. 

AN UNFORTUNATE. 

In passing through Tennessee on my way to 
Georgia, as the train rolled into a small station. I was 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 229 

struck with the appearance of a plainly dressed, 
forlorn looking man peering eagerly into the car from 
the side of the road. A second glance convinced me 
that he was an imbecile. 

Several gentlemen, one of them living near by, gave 
me the history of the unfortunate being. 

It seems that when he was a boy his mother took 
the cars to Nashville, promising to be back on the 
morning train, and to bring him a present of some 
kind when she came. But she never returned, as the 
express on which she went was wrecked and she was 
killed. The catastrophe bore upon the heart of the 
child and he lost his mind. 

This was twenty or more years ago, but every 
morning the witless creature comes to the depot to 
meet his mother and get the present she promised to 
bring him. He only goes to the morning train, paying 
no attention to the others. He recollects that this 
was the one upon which she was to arrive. He gazes 
eagerly for the mother's form, is disappointed for the 
ten thousandth time, and returns quietly to the home 
where some relatives care for him. 

How many sorrowful histories this old world has. 
And how strange it seems to us that people so 
completely undone and wrecked by the miseries and 
calamities of this life should be allowed to live on for 



230 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



years and scores of years. How much happier it 
seems the mother would be with the child, or this son 
with his mother. And yet here is this lonely, pathetic 
figure in threadbare garments, peering into car 
windows and wistfully looking for one who never 
comes. 

Perhaps it is all allowed of God as a means of grace 
to others in caring for such helplessness. Or perhaps 
it is one of the many life pictures showing up 
additional features of the woe that has come upon 
this world through the entrance of sin. Anyhow the 
bruised and afflicted are all over the land, and what 
we do must be done quickly or they or we who could 
relieve and cheer will soon be gone. 

SAVED THROUGH KATY-DIDS. 

Quite a ripple and stir was created in my morning 
service by a man well advanced in years telling how 
he had obtained salvation. He said he had come to the 
meeting on purpose to be saved, but the services did 
not reach him*. 

He was put to sleep one night in a bed with a back- 
slidden preacher. He was so miserable that he could 
not win slumber, and lay listening to the katydids 
that were chirping by myriads in the grove. Sud- 
denly it seemed to him that they said, "Come to 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



231 



Jesus." He could not rid himself of the thought; turn 
as he would, the song or chirp kept ringing in 
his ears, "Come to Jesus"— "Come to Jesus." The 
backslidden preacher was asleep ; and so with a groan 
the man knelt down in the dark and did what the katy- 
dids told him to do, he came to Jesus and was saved. 

It would be hard to describe the effect of this 
simple testimony on the audience. The picture of the 
tossing, convicted man, the sleeping, backslidden 
preacher at his side, and God's having to turn from a 
faithless messenger and use katy-dids to get the gos- 
pel message home, made a profound impression. 

I could but think of the Saviour's words where He 
said to the Jews, "If these should hold their peace the 
stones would immediately cry out." God is going to 
get His message to the people in spite of backslidden 
ministers and church members, and Sanhedrim laws 
and resolutions. He who convicted Peter by the 
crowing of a cock, and rebuked one of his prophets 
through the voice of an ass is not straightened for 
means. He will make the "stones cry out," and com- 
mission the katy-dids to chirp full salvation, while 
men who ought to do it are slumbering on toward the 
Judgment. 



232 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



LONELY YOUNG MEN. 

In my travels and observation of people, two things 
often appeal to me in a strangely pathetic way. One 
is the sight of a line of men at the general delivery 
of the postoffice, turning away disappointed, heartsick 
and gloomy browed under the cold, metallic, mechan- 
ical utterance of the clerk: "Nothing for you/' Many 
of them are young men, and not a few middle aged, 
with every appearance in a large proportion of the 
number that life has been a sad journey as well as 
experience to them. We could not tell who they were 
expecting a letter from, or who should have written 
to them, but we could not keep from observing- their 
sorrowful, dejected manner in turning away, and going 
out on the hard, crowded and yet lonely pavement 
again, nor could we keep back the gush of pity and the 
sudden prayer to God in their behalf. 

Another scene is constantly beheld in a new kind 
of restaurant or luncheon hall that is springing up in 
the large cities. We saw the first in Baltimore a few 
years ago. We found one in the city of Indianapolis, 
and it carries the name of the first metropolis. 

The room is large enough to contain an hundred 
chairs. These have a wooden arm sufficiently wide 
to answer for a table. The floor and walls are hand- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 333 

somely tiled and are spotlessly clean. A dozen small 
palm trees are distributed about among the seats, so 
as to give a garden like air to the place. Two or 
three short marble pillars at equal-distances sustain 
a bowl made of the same material that holds fully a 
half bushel of lump sugar. The large lunch counter 
is loaded down with an appetizing array of ham, 
tongue and cheese sandwiches, while towering silver 
urns hold gallons of fragrant Java. 

The customer comes to the counter, gets his roll 
and cup of coffee; sweetens the drink to suit himself 
at the marble pillar: and then going to a chair with 
his plate and cup makes his ten-cent breakfast under 
the shadow, so to speak, of one of the little palm trees. 

We have marked hundreds of young men in these 
luncheon halls, and rarely saw one go beyond ten cents 
in expenditure for the morning meal. Their clothing 
and manner showed they had known a superior home 
life, and so the cleanness, tidiness and homelikeness 
of the place had operated as a great pull on their 
tastes and feelings. But the cheapness, also, was not 
to be disregarded, and here, silently and far away 
from those who knew and loved them, they contented 
themselves with a breakfast, costing a dime. 

As we watched many of them, we saw from their 
faces and bodies young, strong and healthy, that they 



234 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

could have dispatched easily a half dozen rolls and 
several cups of coffee, and yet they could not for 
financial reasons best known to themselves, and would 
walk away silently, with none of the gayety and out- 
bursts of laughter peculiar to youth. Loneliness, friend- 
lessness in a big city, and penniless days in the future 
staring them in the face, had conspired to make boys 
and young men look and act like old men. 

TWO DOMESTIC INCIDENTS. 

In a testimony meeting a German woman said in 
reference to the cleansing of the Christian heart, that 
when she got ready to dress her children in the after- 
noon, she placed the clean clothes on one chair, and a 
bowl of water with soap and towel on another. Then 
she called the little ones. She said that all of them 
wanted to put on the clean clothes, but not one desired 
the cleansing. It was in vain that she explained how 
badly they would look and feel with white clothes on 
dirty hands, necks and bodies ; they all abhorred and 
dreaded the washing and giving the washbowl a wide 
berth, they stopped by the chair on which rested the 
pretty garments. 

Her story, with its application, brought smiles from 
all over the house. Many knew how willing some ot 
God's people are to put on the white robes of Heaven, 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 235 

but how pugilistic and pugnacious, how full of fuss, 
fume and objection they are,, when told of a cleansing 
that must precede the wearing of the white garment 
here or yonder. That it is not a question of birth at 
all ; it is the washing of a child of God already born ! 

The second target-hitting allusion of the lady was 
that she once read of a boy, whom his father offered 
to give fifty cents if he would go with him to the river 
and learn to swim. The boy, at a distance from the 
stream, cheerfully promised, but when the cold water 
struck his foot, he looked up to his parent with a 
quivering lip and said : "Father, give me twenty-five 
cents, and I'll go home without learning to swim." 

Again the smiles came out abundantly upon the 
faces of the audience. AH of us knew the class of 
whom the lad was a type. We had seen them at the 
altar for a single night or two, beheld them make a 
weak effort, shiver all over and then limp trembling 
back to the bank or the back seats. There are the ones 
who start to build the tower and get tired. They begin 
the war, do not count the cost, and either surrender or 
make ignoble peace. These are the people who want 
the blessing, but can not stand cold treatment, either 
from the world, or the church. They start out with the 
full value and preciousness of the blessing in mind, but 
under the cool smile and icy demeanor of certain 



236 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



people, they give up the seeking, and dashing back to 

the old-time life and routine duties, try to content 
themselves with a half blessing, or the twenty-five- 
cent experience. It is true that they have something, 
but they might have had double, besides obtaining the 
cleansing in the river, and learning how to sw r im and 
float in the pure flowing, buoyant and uplifting grace 
of God. 

A POLICE COURT SCENE. 

Speaking of things of moral beauty, we were deeply 
impressed a few days since by reading in a paper the 
description of a recent occurrence in a police court in 
one of our largest cities. We scarcely ever read any- 
thing that affected us more profoundly. We give the 
paragraph entire as we saw it in the morning journal. 

"Thirty men, red-eyed and disheveled, lined up be- 
fore the judge of the court. It was the regular 
morning company of drunks and disorderlies. Some 
were old and hardened, others hung their heads in 
shame. 

Just as the momentary disorder attending the 
bringing of the prisoners quieted down, a strange 
thing happened. A strong, clear voice from below 
began singing: 

"Last night I lay a-sleeping, 
There came a dream so fair." 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



237 



Last night! It had been for them all a nightmare 
or a drunken stupor. The song was such a contrast 
to the horrible fact that no one could avoid the sudden 
shock at the thought the song suggested. It went on : 
"I stood in old Jerusalem 

Beside the Temple there 
I heard the children singing, 

And ever as they sang, 
Methought the voice of angels 
From heaven in answer rang." 
The judge had paused. He made a quiet inquiry. 
A former member of a famous opera company, known 
all over the country, was awaiting trial for forgery. 
It was he who was singing in his cell. 
Meantime the song went on. 

"And once again the scene was changed, 

New earth there seemed to be; 
I saw the Holy City 

Beside the tideless sea. 
The light of God was on its streets, 

The gates were open wide, 
And all who would might enter, 
And no one was denied." 
Every man in the line showed emotion. One boy 
at the end of the row, after desperate effort at self- 
control, leaned against the wall, buried his face in 



238 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



his folded arms and sobbed, "Oh, mother, mother !" 

The sobs cutting the weary hearts of the men who 
heard, and the song still welling its way through the 
court room, blended in the hush. At length one man 
protested. 

"Judge," said he, "have we got to submit to this? 

We are here to take our punishment, but this " 

He, too, began to sob. 

It was impossible to proceed with the business of 
the Court, yet the judge gave no order to stop the song, 
The police sergeant, after a surprised effort to keep 
the men in line, stepped back and waited with the rest. 
The song moved to its climax: 
"Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! 

Sing for the night is o'er; 
Hosanna in the highest, 
Hosanna for evermore!" 
In an ecstasy of melody the last words rang out, 
and then there was a silence. 

. The judge looked into the faces of the men before 
him. There was not one who was not touched by the 
song; not one in whom some better impulse was not 
stirred. 

He did not call the cases singly — a kind word of ad- 
vice, and he dismissed them all. No man was fined or 
sentenced to the workhouse that morning. The song 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



239 



had done more good than punishment could ever have 
accomplished. " 

A HUMAN PILLARED TABERNACLE. 

I told the congregation one night that ever since the 
Deluge, sinners have been afraid of storms ; and that 
the quietness, serenity and even joyfulness of the holi- 
ness people under these circumstances of rushing 
blasts and rocking tents ought to convince them that 
something had happened to their souls in lines of 
grace. 

I was peculiarly affected one night at the sight of 
fifteen or twenty men, each standing by one of the 
side poles, endeavoring to hold down the flapping, 
heaving tabernacle, which was threatening every mo- 
ment to go off through the air from us in spite of all we 
could do. The spectacle of these men standing all 
around the tent, their dark suits outlined against the 
white canvas, and still listening to my sermon, while 
struggling with the upright poles, and trying to hold 
the tent down and steady, has made a picture in my 
mind that I can never forget; and will never recall 
without my heart growing warm and eyes becoming 
misty with tears. 

Of course we saw something else in the scene that 
had to us a declaration of present faithfulness, and a 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



prophecy of future devotion. In the storm-shaken 
tabernacle we saw the assaults of earth and hell 
against the holiness movement; and in those loving, 
quiet, but determined looking faces and hands of the 
men around the tent, we saw in allegory the people all 
over the land that are banded together for the defense 
and victory of full salvation, and who not only are re- 
solved to win, but who under the smile and blessing of 
God will succeed in spite of men, devils and everything. 

THE DENUDED ROOSTER. 

I was entertained very kindly at a pleasant country 
home, a half mile from town, and was much interested 
in the farm yard, and studied daily the history and 
habits of the domestic fowls and animals with which 
it abounded. 

I particularly observed a rooster who had lost his 
handsome tail-feathers. They had been torn out by a 
hog. This chanticleer was cut by all the hens, and spent 
most of his time in a kind of box, looking out silently, 
mournfully and perhaps bitterly, on the world. He had 
quit crowing. He seemed to have lost his voice when 
he parted with his plume. In other words his 
testimony went with his experience. He also was 
evidently soured, and doubtless spent his time railing 
at everything and everyone in the chicken line. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 241 

Poor fellow! I have seen his human mate in a good 
many places. When the waving plume of a beautiful 
experience goes, then the joyous, rapturous crow of 
testimony departs. Now then for the box! And the 
silent, glum, grum, look at every one who dares to do 
anything outside of his wooden retreat. 

Brother, have you lost your glad, old-time crow? 
Are the feathers gone? If so, then never rest until 
you get a new plume and a fresh crow. He who makes 
all the birds in the woodland and barnyard, has an 
abundance of feathers and plenty of songs and 
clarion calls. These are to be had for the asking. 

One thing I feel sure of, and that is, as long as we 
keep the plume of a beautiful experience and the crow 
of a joyous testimony, we will not have to mope alone 
in a box, and look out soured and fault finding on the 
world. Some old superannuated fowls may criticize 
and find fault, but we will always have plenty of calls 
to crow, will be on a box instead of in one, and ever 
have a profound listening and a good following given 
us no matter what ecclesiastical yard or field we are 
called upon providentially to enter. 

UNTIMELY SINGING. 

While talking one night with those bowed at the 
altar, I was in the act of speaking to a young lady who 



|42 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

was one of those seeking a clean heart, when we found 
she was singing alto. Instantly, without a word, and 
without a moment's delay I turned from her and ad- 
dressed myself to another. 

One thing we have observed in years of revival 
work: that is, all persons who sing alto, tenor or bass 
w T hile bowed at the altar never obtain the blessing they 
are after. It is quite rare to see an individual sweep 
into the light while singing at ah. for the reason that 
when the soul is in agony .and on the full stretch for 
pardon or purity, the condition of mind and heart is 
such as to banish all thought and desire of song. It 
w r as after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and were 
happily delivered, that they rejoiced,, danced, sung and 
struck the timbrels. Now, when it comes to persons 
singing alto, tenor or bass at the altar where they are 
bowed to receive the blessing of justification or 
holiness the very thought strikes one as absurd, 
and plainly declares the absence cf that soul agony 
and that forgetfulness of surroundings, which we must 
have to enter upon and possess the deep things of God. 

We once read of a man who sung bass at his wife's 
funeral. We never hear a penitent singing alto, tenor 
or bass at the altar, but we think of that man. Here 
is one supposed to be attending the funeral of him- 
self, or the old man, and should properly appear in 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 243 

the character of chief mourner, when lo! he takes a 
place in the choir and assists in the singing. 

In either of the above cases no one would suppose 
for an instant that any particular sorrow was felt, or 
profound feeling of any kind entertained. 

It would not be amiss to say that the young lady, 
whose alto singing brought about the reflections just 
given, did not secure the blessing. Only the next day 
she went off on some kind of pleasure excursion, and 
we saw her no more at the meeting. All of which 
goes to confirm what we said in the beginning. 

KNOCKED INTO THE KINGDOM. 

A lady who has attended many of the meetings was 
recently telling me of a couple of odd happenings that 
took place at some mission services. She said that a 
poor, lost sinner was standing just in front of the 
door while a meeting was in progress. He had never 
been in the hall, and had no idea of going. Through 
his sinful life he was empty in pocket and hungry. As 
a gentleman was passing before him, he made bold to 
ask him please to give him some money. The 
words were hardly out of his mouth, when the person 
he had accosted drew back his fist and struck him 
such a violent blow on the head that he knocked the 
poor fellow clear through the mission door and landed 



244 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

him sprawling in the aisle. At once a couple of the 
ushers, or brethren laid hold upon him and, seeing he 
needed salvation, they carried him up to the altar and 
dumped him down by its side. In a few minutes he 
began to wail and cry to the Saviour for mercy, and in 
less than an half hour was clearly and powerfully con- 
verted. Truly this was being knocked into the kingdom 
of God, and it was a blow for which a man could be 
thankful for having received forevermore. The man 
who smote him evidently had neither silver nor gold, 
but such as he had, he gave freely to him, and it 
resulted in something far better than money. 

On another occasion, when the leader of the meet- 
ing called for hands to be raised of those who wanted 
to come to the altar and be saved, a couple of ushers 
or workers made a mistake and got hold of a man who 
had not raised his hand. As they laid hold upon him 
to escort him to the altar as they often did at this 
mission, the man protested and told them they had 
hold of the wrong man. But they would not release 
him, and fairly dragged the resisting individual to the 
mourner's bench, and pulled him down on his knees. 
Strange to say, the deepest conviction came upon him, 
and in a few minutes he was crying out to God most 
earnestly for salvation. Before the meeting closed, 
he was blessedly saved, and the laugh which had been 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 24g 

turned upon the ushers, was now directed in another 
way. 

AN OLD SHOT GUN. 

It is quite noticeable that the preacher who writes 
a book against holiness as a divine work in the soul, 
wrought instantaneously in answer to consecration,' 
faith and prayer, never writes another. 

Men who take the side favoring such a work find 
a perfect succession of volumes on the subject welling 
up first in the heart in thought matter, and then 
pouring out later from the point of the pen. But 
the denier of this great work of Christ is done for, and 
done up as well as undone in one book. 

He has said all his say, shot off all his ammunition 
in volume one, and there is nothing left to put in 
volume two, so that production never appears. 

One explanation we believe is that the gun killed 
the gunner! 

We had in our home an old shot gun which was as 
dangerous at one end as at the other. The fact is 
that it did more damage at the butt end or breech 
than at the muzzle. It always kicked dreadfully, and 
once it put out the eye of a man who was shooting 
it. These peculiar features of the weapon finally led to 
its being left severely alone. 



248 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



So with the books which we have been mentioning; 
they hurt the writer often more than the reader ; the 
shooter more than the shootee. 

We have known such authors to have lost their 
spiritual sight by writing and publishing such 
volumes. Moreover they got such a kick, such a 
spiritual recoil from shooting at God's truth that they 
were knocked clear out of public sight and worse still, 
out of their religious experience. 

Can any one point to a single revival granted the 
three preachers from Alabama, Nebraska and Massa- 
chusetts since they wrote their books against holiness 
as an instantaneous work of grace wrought in the 
soul of the believer, subsequent to regeneration? 

They were killed by their own gun. 

TWO DEATH BED SCENES. 

We once witnessed the death of a traveling agent 
who came into the town, where I was stationed as a 
young preacher. He arrived a well man, and left it a 
few days later in a coffin. His young wife, summoned 
by telegraph, did not arrive in time to see him die, and 
departed, broken-hearted, the next morning with the 
body for her stricken home. 

I think I never prayed or talked with a sadder man. 
It was all so sudden, so horrible to him that he had to 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 347 

die, and yet unprepared, that he seemed struck into 
dumbness, while a frightened, anxious look fairly 
burned in his eyes. Propped upon a pillow he would 
gaze for hours through the open window at the moving 
leaves of a grape arbor close by. He seemed to be 
looking far beyond at something, and when spoken to 
would turn a perfectly despairing glance upon the 
speaker, and again resume the silent, melancholy, fixed 
gaze out of the window. 

Of course we prayed and talked with him, but no 
light ever came into his face, and we have always 
feared he died without hope, as he had lived without 
Christ in the world. 
Very agreeably, by way of contrast, comes back the 

memory of the death of my singer, Professor R , 

He had been delirious for days. Standing by his bed- 
side one morning and looking down in his face I 
said : 

"Bro. R , do you know me?" 

He gave an inquiring look, and called me by the 
name of a gentleman in Kentucky. 

Again I spoke and said : 

"Bro. R ■ do you know Jesus ?" 

Back instantly from the region of unconsciousness 
leaped the spirit of this faithful servant of Christ at the 
bare mention of his Lord's name, and with face all 



248 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



aglow, and tears running down his cheeks and voice 
choking with emotion he cried : 
"Yes, thank God ! Yes, thank God \" 

MEANINGLESS PRAYERS. 

In a recent meeting held by the writer a series of 
prayer services had taken place beforehand asking for 
the outpouring of the Spirit. Two of the brethren who 
supplicated most vociferously for an old-time revival 
were the first to leave, or rather run, when the Gospel 
battle opened. 

All of this convinces us that there is a lot of praying 
done on earth where not only the heart is not involved 
but the head is also unemployed. Sentences are uttered 
memoriter. They have been spoken many times be- 
fore. The brother praying heard somebody else use the 
words and adopted them. And now it is a memorized 
speech to the Almighty from the knees. The man going 
through the motions of this means of grace is "saying 
his prayers." 

Who wonders when the genuine work begins ; when 
the Holy Ghost convicts; and the power of God falls 
upon mind, heart, and conscience, that such puppet 
figures of real soldiers of the cross go down before the 
roar of the first Gospel gun, or tumble over each other 
in their flight from the battle field. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 249 

The same cannon, however, that makes some run 
brings a lot more to the front, and the ranks of God's 
army are not weakened, but sifted and strengthened 
by the two movements of the goers and the comers. 
It so proved in this meeting, and every other meeting 
that we held since we have been an evangelist. 

"THEY SAY." 

A philosophical nobleman, a man of the world, had 
three sentences written on his castle gate. Misunder- 
stood by his neighbors, and shunned by a large part 
of the community, the three lines on the door natural- 
ly bore some reference to that fact. 

When he started to ride out over his estate each 
morning, he would first rein his horse up in front of 
the big portal with its prominent lettering, and read 
aloud : 

They Say! 

What Do They Say? 
Let Them Say! 

And then, with the last word, he would laugh, put 
spurs to his horse and gallop off. 

It would be a pity if Christians should allow a man 
of the world to outdo them in the obtainment of 
victory over the onslaughts of men and devils. 

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" And lo, 



250 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

the answer that some would be . compelled to give 
would be so representative of nothing, that smiles and 
laughter would have to come. 

Somebody had talked about you ! But everybody is 
talked about. 

Some one has misrepresented you! But who has 
escaped here. And was not the Lord Himself dis- 
cussed, slandered, and accused of saying things that 
He never uttered ? 

IMPATIENCE. 

We knew a mother who was greatly given to 
scolding her sons and daughters. She not only was 
continually picking and nagging, but at times she 
would go into a perect fury with them. She lost 
five of these children, and begged every one of them 
on their deathbeds to forgive her. After they were in 
the cemetery, she lived in memory over their lives 
again, beholding continually the wounds she had in- 
flicted upon them with her uncontrollable tongue, and 
her agony was frightful to contemplate. 

We know of a man who lived in a lonely country 
neighborhood, and when in absence of help had to 
dress the body of his son for the coffin. In turning 
the corpse he caught sight of great marks and stripes 
on the back which he had put there with a cowhide in 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 251 

one of his merciless whippings. His own suffering at 
the sight can be easily imagined. 

Yet there are cruder blows than those which come 
from a whip. There are wounds made by the fretful, 
impatient and angry tongue which never seem to heal. 
The victim may be removed from sight. The face we 
shadowed and grieved may rest quietly under the sod 
of some country church-yard or city cemetery, but 
the recollection of the pained, suffering look that was 
cast upon us as we wielded the lash-like tongue, we 
can never forget. The marks were not only left on 
them, but seem to abide with us. 

Not only then for our increased influence for good; 
and not only for the happiness of others with whom 
we are associated; but for our own soul's sake we 
see why the Bible tells us to "Be patient toward all 
men." 

I SAW YOUR LITTLE BIRD. 

We once read of a painting, by a gifted artist, that 
was on exhibition in an Italian Hall of Art. It 
represented a dense woodland, with interlocked boughs 
and thick canopies of leaves through which a few 
faint beams of misty light filtered and were lost in the 
deep shadows. 

Many admired the picture as they strolled by, say- 
ing, "Beautiful," "Impressive/' "Wonderful/' etc. 



352 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

The creator of the work of art was standing near one 
day and could not but smile as he heard some of the 
pronouncements of the crowd as they glanced at this, 
his labor of years. 

Finally another artist came and ' looked long and 
silently upon the canvas. Then as he turned to go, he 
laid his hand gently on the shoulder of his fellow 
painter and said softly, and with tears in his eyes, 

"I saw your little bird." 

The artist had placed this tiny bit of life among the 
dark tree trunks and shadowy branches, to intensify 
the loneliness of the wilderness. This crowning touch 
of the painting, overlooked by many, was recognized 
by a certain appreciative order of mind. It is said 
that the maker of the picture could scarcely utter a 
word in reply. 

The point we make is that one class or grade of 
intellect can recognize certain literary beauties and 
excellencies when presented to it, but it requires a 
higher order of mind to create these same admirable 
things. In a word, Taste can appreciate, Talent 
imitate, but it takes Genius to create. 

A CRY ON THE RACK. 

Public characters in the political as well as religious 
world are often "dogged" and "goaded" by a host of 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 253 

people, many of whom are nondescripts. They snap 
at the heels and yelp at the progress of successful 
men. They throw stones at the life march. They 
bushwhack. 

At times they imitate the Indian and light the fires 
of the torture stake. Perhaps they prefer the Dark 
Age methods and hunt for thumb-screws and body- 
racks of false accusations. They turn the wheel of 
insinuation, and begin the stretching of the joints and 
sinews of patience. At such times, when fagged, worn 
and exhausted, the overloaded and persecuted man 
has given a groan or cry, or let fall an expression of 
repining or complaint. Instantly it is seized upon 
by detractors to describe and prove the true character 
of the victim ; when the same criticizing and judging 
parties had utterly failed to see the real being. They 
had only beheld a part of his life, and a very small 
portion of it at that. They failed to take in the months 
and years of patient endurance and silent submission 
to conditions that in themselves were simply in- 
tolerable. They judged a fellow-creature by a solitary 
cry of anguish upon the cross, as a fresh sponge of 
vinegar or gall was pressed to the lips or another 
spear was thrust into the quivering side. 



254 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE ACHING TOOTH. 

A preacher friend of the writer told him once that 
he had a little grandson named Johnnie, who was 
about four year of age. One night he was crying 
bitterly from toothache. All the family were sitting 
in the library, father and mother, grandfather and 
grandmother, and grown-up brothers and sisters. He 
went from one to the other, and reached out his little 
arms first for this one and then for that one, until he 
had made the entire round and started on the second 
journey. He tried his father's shoulder, his mother's 
breast, his sister's loving embrace, while a strong, big 
brother walked him up and down, and the grandfather 
rocked him. But nothing would do, and nobody suited 
him. He in the course of ten minutes had been in the 
arms and sat on the lap of every one in the room, 
seeking rest and finding none. 

After getting thus far in the story the preacher 
stopped a moment, fixed his eyes with an amused look 
upon us, and said, "The laps were all right; the trouble 
was with the tooth of our little Johnnie !" 

This incident has a wonderful explanation in it of 
certain kinds of human conduct, and a tremendous 
application to those people whom nothing and nobody 
can please. They lay blame on individuals and 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS S55 

circumstances, when the real explanation of their fault- 
finding and abusive speech is a morally diseased in- 
ward condition ! God has a large family who are well, 
but He has some children who are unwell. They think 
others are wrong when— the trouble is with their own 
aching tooth. 

A CHANGE OF OPINION. 

We had the usual cases of restitution, as indeed al- 
ways happens when the Spirit of God comes in power. 
One instance with its effect upon a third party we 
mention. 

An elderly gentleman belonging to the Methodist 
church was in attendance upon the meeting to get 
light upon the subject of holiness. He reported to his 
wife his favorable impressions, but she, being full of 
prejudice, refused to come, saying, 

"There was no good in such meetings." 

One afternoon this elderly gentleman, convinced of 
the truth of sanctification, arose and came to the altar. 
A few minutes after another gentleman came rushing 
from the audience and fell on his knees not far from 
him, and after some crying and groaning came over to 
the older party and said : 

"I wronged you out of twenty dollars years ago. 
Here is half of the money, and you shall have the 



256 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



balance with interest straightway. Please forgive me." 

In a few minutes after this the younger man ob- 
tained salvation, and the older one sanctification, and 
at the conclusion of the service the latter went to his 
home up town. Coming into the presence of his wife 
he told her with a radiant face how God had blessed 
him, and she was about to repeat what she had said 
before, 'That there was no good in the meeting/'' 
when the husband, interrupting her, told how God 
had gotten hold of a man who had formerly wronged 
him and made him restore the money. Whereupon 
he drew out the bank bill and made it a present to her. 

The woman took the money, looked thoughtful 
awhile and then smiling graciously, said, 

"It is a good meeting.'' 

THE CAT BIRD. 

The birds of my strip of woodland seem to be the 
children of the day. Full of song, flitting busily 
through the branches of the trees, and always true to 
the law of their being, they preach powerfully to the 
inhabitant of the tent. We readily distinguish them 
by their varied calls, from the bright-hued woodpecker 
applauding his own song most vigorously with his 
bill on some lofty dead limb, to the bright cheery 
whistle of the partridge as he calls "Bob White" down 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 357 

yonder in the field just over the fence. In addition I 
listen with a thrilled heart to the weird cry of the rain 
crow in a distant tree top, the fretting of a catbird in a 
thicket, the faraway coo of a lonely dove, and the 
musical trill of a field lark just before it takes one of 
its swift, dipping flights. 

They all seem to be on good terms. We have not 
noticed a single row or misunderstanding among 
them up to the present writing, the last day of the 
meeting. No feathers have been pulled, no eyes 
pecked out. We hear no criminations or recrimina- 
tions. The woods seem to be large and roomy enough 
for all, and the sunshine abundant for the whole 
winged community. All seem to have religion but 
the catbird, who fusses down the hollow in a little 
bush all to himself. He seems to be put out with 
everything, judging from his tones that are querulous 
and fault-finding beyond anything heard or known 
elsewhere in the feathered tribes. The other birds 
say he is a "come-outer," and the woodpecker has 
been engaged to make his coffin. This, doubtless, was 
the hammering I heard on the dead limb. The dove 
has consented to sing a dirge at the funeral. 



258 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



DON T BE TOO CONFIDENTIAL. 

Some things that we have done we would not do 
again. 

For instance, we would not show the riches of 
Jerusalem to every visitor that comes along. This 
mistake led a Jewish kipg into humiliation and defeat, 
and is as certain to bring mortification and regret to 
the soul who repeats the error in spiritual lines. 

It does not pay to take every smooth-spoken 
plausible-tongued being who happens along into the 
treasure house of the heart and life. Benjamin 
Franklin's story of the whistle, and Miss Edgeworth's 
narrative of the gullability of Frank on one occasion 
throws considerable light on what is referred to here, 
while the statement made about the Saviour that he 
did not commit himself to certain men, for he knew 
what was in man, is a perfect revelation thrown on 
the matter. 

By this method, like the Saviour, our intimate friends 
would be fewer, but those we had would be truer, and 
we would escape many hours of needless suffering. 

Again, could we go this way again, we would show 
"the sore finger" to no one but the Lord. 

The unwrapping of the wound is always attended 
with danger, postpones recovery and actually invites 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 259 

inflammation, not to say mortification. Then there 
are so many wounded ones around who need 
sympathy, and it is so much nobler to endure silently 
than to be whining around in other people's ears, 
who, if we only knew it, had burdens greater than 
our own. 

A BULLET OF BREAD. 

Kindness is the best and surest of all ways to over- 
come an enemy. 

It amuses while it grieves the heart to see men's 
ideas of dealing wiih and ending human hate and 
opposition. They fairly rack their brains for in- 
ventions of weapons of warfare that possess still 
greater destructive power. So they turn out monster 
battleships that in death-dealing force equal many an 
army of former days. And they mount guns which., ac- 
cording to the report of the latest construction, can 
land a shell full of ruin and death twenty-five mile3 
away, 

Jesus, with profounder and perfect wisdom, told 
His followers to use bread upon their enemies; to 
confront evil, with good, cursing with blessing and 
hate and persecution with love and kindness. 

Elisha showed that he had learned of this heavenly 
school and taken in this God-like spirit, in the way he 



260 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



treated the Syrian army which, by a remarkable 
happening, was placed in the power of the Israelites. 
The Jews wanted at once to strike and kill, but Elisha 
said No, let us spare them and feed them. The effect 
on the Syrians was amazing to earth, but not to 
heaven. It is God's way of doing. The alien army 
thus delivered and fed, went back to their country full 
of gratitude and kindly feelings. The Bible says they 
would not make war with Israel again. Truly, certain 
loaves of bread had proved more powerful than spears, 
arrows, horses and chariots of iron. 

When will we learn that the soul is unbarricaded 
on the love side, and that kindness has always and will 
ever capture it in that quarter. 

When will men also find out that, while a bullet or 
sword may kill an enemy, yet he remains a foe in 
the other world; while kindness or shooting such 
bullets as loaves of bread, bank notes, loving words 
and patient, sympathetic letters, sees its adversaries 
not simply fall to the ground, but suddenly change to 
friends. The miracle of miracles is that the same 
strange weapon or missile which slew an opponent, 
made at the same instant a loving ally. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 261 

THE ICE YACHT. 

It is a memorable picture in the winter season of 
the year, to look upon New England from a rushing 
Express and note in quick and charming succession, 
the whitened fields, the fences half buried in snow, the 
wind-swept hill, the glittering, ice encased clump of 
trees, the church spire looking down on the silent 
town, and the frozen river, with its long lines of 
skaters who are. sweeping with graceful poise of body 
like birds before the wind. 

Especially at this time a view of the Hudson River 
from the car window of a flying train is one not soon 
to be forgotten. The vast landscape, the big ice 
houses hard at work saving and gathering in the huge 
crystal blocks, and last but not least the scudding 
yachts dotting the surface of the broad frozen river 
form only part of an ever attractive picture over two 
hundred miles in length, and from three to twenty in 
width. 

The ice-yacht is made of two transverse beams of 
wood arranged like a cross, resting flat on steel 
runners. A sail and rudder complete the outfit, and 
when the wind strikes the canvas the machine fairly 
flies. A mile a minute is nothing unusual as to speed, 
and so it leaves the ordinary methods of running and 
racing far in the wake and badly distanced. 



202 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

We observed that the man who navigated the craft 

did not stand, or sit up, but lay perfectly flat on the 
wooden beam that held mast, sail and rudder. 

As we looked, we got to thinking of two other 
transverse beams on which Christ died, and on which 
we are told by the Bible to stretch ourselves. We 
have tried it. and seen others do the same, and know 
from experience and observation that if we do so. and 
hoist the sail of faith and prayer. God will send such 
a breath or wind from heaven in the form of the Spirit, 
that we wall not only haste in the race for heaven, but 
outsail and outstrip everything sent after us by earth 
and hell, and finally win by a million leagues of grace, 
sweep into the port of glory and take the everlasting 
prize. 

But the ice yacht that had preached a sermon to 
me on the Hudson as it swept past, flung back a 
closing exhortation or warning, 

"You must have )^our sail hoisted, and keep your- 
self prostrate on the wood.''' 

And I said, "Bless God, I will do so." 

"A MIGHTY POOR MEETING." 

In a Southern trip I met an evangelist who said that 
he had lately held a meeting with his son as his singer. 
That at its close the youth wrote an account of it to 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 263 

one of the religious papers published in the State. 
The description was very brief, being not over a half 
dozen lines; but it was very true and quite forcible. 
He said : 

"We had a mighty poor meeting." 

There was quite a burst of laughter around the fire- 
side at this unadorned narration. There was some- 
thing so refreshingly plain,, honest, direct and simple 
about it; it savored so of correctness in statement, and 
of character in the writer, that it struck every mind 
and heart present as a golden sentence and one to be 
treasured. Then it was so remarkably original. Xone 
of us remembered ever to have heard or read such 
words before. All the reports we had ever perused 
relative to revival meetings described the services as 
being "Gales of Glory/''' "Cyclones of Power," "The 
City Stirred From Center to Circumference," "Hun- 
dreds at the Altar,'* "Hundreds Converted and Sancti- 
fied, ,J "Hundreds Turned Away from the Door Unable 
to Get In," "The Devil Sent Howling Back to Hell/ 4 
etc., etc. 

But this ecclesiastical bulletin said, "we had a 
mighty poor meeting!" So we studied it, and pored 
over it as a great curiosity, and felt it was every way 
worthy of being placed in a glass case in the National 
Museum, and labled, 



264 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



"The first and very likely the last of this remark- 
able species." 

TENTING BY A GRAVEYARD. 

The meeting here is being held in a quiet sylvan 
spot, just beyond the suburbs. It is quite a pretty 
place, with its wooded valley and green hillsides 
dotted with trees. I had my tent moved up from the 
dale to the top of one of the broad, low hills, and 
find that my nearest neighbor is a family cemetery, 
filled with gleaming marble slabs and pillars. I visited 
it this afternoon, being surprised at its presence on 
the hill. I found it to be the burial lot of a single 
family. The father, mother, sons and daughters were 
all here, making a dozen mounds in all. Each grave 
had a marble head-piece, showing the family to have 
been one of means; while the dates revealed that all 
had been dead quite a while. The large size of the 
cedar trees, the utter destruction of the original fence, 
and two of the slabs lying upon the ground corro- 
borated the statement of the dates. Formerly the public 
road had run by it, but a new highway had been 
opened years ago to town and the old road was now 
washed in gullies, unfenced and growing up with elder 
bushes and golden rod. The melancholy picture 
my eyes looked upon was a forgotten family lying 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 265 

in a neglected spot, by the side of a forsaken road. 

Truly we do not have to go far to get the most sol- 
emn lessons of life! And so many of them seem to 
teach the vanity of everything but Heaven. How 
soon we are forgotten on earth. How quickly our 
places are taken in life, and we are scarcely missed. 
How the heart yearns as we grow older, to have the 
journey of life over. How we envy sometimes the 
pale-faced sleepers in these quiet burial grounds! 
Their battles have been fought, their toil is over, and, 
if saved, their sorrows are ended forever. I came 
away from the place with a strange sensation, as 
though I had seen a mile-post close to heaven. 

A NOCTURNAL MEMORY. 

The power of the associative faculty is very won- 
derful. There are scenes and sounds that instantly 
bring back occurrences of the long ago, and we are 
made to feel acutely and live over again most sen- 
sibly and powerfully events of a forgotten past. The 
smell of a jasmine flower invariably brings me to the 
grave of my sister, who died when she was sixteen. 
The sight of a new moon gleaming through the trees 
always recalls the evening when walking along a 
country road I told my love to my wife, now in heaven. 

Last night another association was suddenly flung 



266 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



in upon me. I was lying wakeful in my tent near 
the hour of midnight, when I heard the baying of a 
dog deep in the woods. The echo was cast from a 
forest wall, over a field, and into my tent, and in an 
instant the sound had conjured up a scene from the 
past. 

When the yellow fever in the "seventies" left New 
Orleans and invaded the smaller cities and even the 
country, I, as a young preacher, determined to remain 
with the few people who stayed in a depopulated town 
where I was pastor, but I took my young wife and 
children, Reed, Maude and Guy, into a safe place in 
the country. The whole land was filled with gloom, 
and no one knew what would be the end of the 
scourge. Communities had been vacated, streets were 
silent, while fugitives were everywhere. 

The next morning I was to leave my family, who, 
with every member of the household, were wrapped 
in slumber. I could not sleep, but spent the night 
on the front gallery, sitting or reclining on a settee. 
My only companions were the stars. The broad cot- 
ton field stretched away in a misty light to the distant 
woods, in whose depths a dog was barking. He had 
treed something and his bay echoed from the dark 
forest and reverberated over the fields. 

It was a simple thing, but that scene and sound has 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



267 



never been forgotten. I have never heard a dog bark 
in the woods since but that lonely, melancholy night 
with the dark, uncertain future to follow it, comes 
back to me. Half of my little family that were under 
the roof that night are now in heaven. The -'Martyr" 
and "Guy" are both with the angels. So, last night, 
as I lay wakeful in my tent after the night sermon 
at the Tabernacle, and while I was watching the far- 
away solemn stars through the open canvas covering, 
the baying of the dog, with its distant mournful echo, 
from the woods, brought back the past with a rush 
upon me ; twenty years were wiped out, I was a young 
preacher again, and my dead were alive and with me 
once more. 

A SILENT TOWN. 

It is the stillest, most grave-yard-like town 1 ever 
saw. The houses are all white, many fences are of 
stone, the stately elm-trees stand like sentinels in the 
yard, the tapering cedar and spruce whisper of the 
cemetery, while the cawing of the crows or rooks 
from the distant fields, add to the melancholy, and 
even to the silence of the place. For hours this 
"caw — caw" from the far away fields, has been all I 
have heard. 

One afternoon I walked through the town and never 
met a soul on the street, nor saw a face at the win- 



268 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



dow of a single house, nor beheld a child in the yard, 
nor heard a dog bark nor a rooster crow. As I 
pushed on into the country for a walk, and left the 
dwellings behind me, I thought of the Arabian Nights, 
and the stories of enchanted islands and cities, 'and 
people put to sleep for an hundred years. 

Just at this moment I met an old woman in a short 
red cloak coming up the road, and I said: "Here she is 
at last, this is the old witch or fairy that has done this; 
and now she will take that stick of hers which is a 
wand, and touch me and make me a Prince or turn me 
into her coachman, I don't know which." 

But she did neither. She hardly looked at me and 
passed on. Perhaps she was not a fairy. Maybe she 
was just a good old soul going home after a gossipy 
visit to a neighbor! 

Nevertheless I went on a half mile farther and 
looked on a field where our troops drilled during the 
Revolutionary war, and got ready to meet the Brit- 
ish. After leaning on an old stone fence, looking at 
the silent field a .little while, and a long while at a 
range of lofty hills in the dim distance, I came away. 

On returning to the hotel I was informed that 
Gen. Washington had slept one night in this old New 
England settlement during the Revolutionary Times. 
Then we wondered if this was the matter with the 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



269 



community. For we gathered that it had never grown 
a particle since that eventful hour, Perhaps the Gen- 
eral in casting oft his slumber, let it fall on the town! 

If so it is certainly well for our country that the 
Commander in Chief in those days did not generally 
distribute his sleeping favors. It would now have 
been a Land of Nod, inhabited by Rip Van Winkles. 

THE VOICE OF THE SEA. 

The hotel is on the beach, and the windows of my 
room, not an hundred feet from the water, overlook 
the boundless Pacific Ocean. 

Much of my time in the day I spend book in hand 
sitting or strolling on the strand. But I find it hard 
to read with the ever-changing beauties of the sea out- 
spread before my eyes. Then the sight of the green 
billows suddenly breaking into waves of snow for 
miles as they dash with solemn boom and roar upon 
the shore, is enough in itself to take the charm from 
any book written by man, because of the greater spell 
cast upon the heart by a mightier work written by an 
infinite author. 

Then there are wondrous sunsets on the sea; and 
there are visions in the dim distance, both north and 
south, of sloping mountains enveloped in a garment 
of misty blue coming down to the ocean side as if 



270 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



meditating a plunge, and then suddenly shrinking 
back as if in fear at the last moment. 

But the voice of the sea itself, heard day and night 
in the wash, roll and tumble of the surf on the 
strand, is the sound after ail that tugs at the heart 
and fills the soul with emotions that pen and tongue 
cannot declare. Little Paul Dombey, with thoughtful 
face and fading life, heard voices in the billows, 
and trundled in his carriage by the sea, would listen 
to them in silence for hours. His sister Florence did 
not hear them, and when he spoke in his strange old 
way about what the wild waves were saying, she 
would hide her face from the child and burst into 
tears. Perhaps not all hear the tones and voices and 
whispers and messages that God has put in his works 
in the sky, afar on the mountains deep in the forests 
and especially in the dark blue waves of the solemn 
Ocean. 

THE ABSENT SINGER. 

I am penning these lines from Omaha, on my way 
to my next camp meeting in South Dakota. I stopped 
off a couple of days here to rest before beginning the 
next battle. 

A few years ago I held a meeting in this city. 
Each night after leaving the big tent, I would come 
back to my room at the hotel and sit down exhausted 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 271 

in a chair by the window at 11 o'clock, and remain 
buried in thought looking out at a star-sprinkled sky 
until midnight. 

Just below me was a kind of summer garden, where 
men gathered, smoked and chatted, while a young 
man, accompanied by several musical instruments, 
sang a number of touching songs and ballads. 

From the same lofty room window of the hotel I 
have looked down two nights. But the garden has 
been displaced by a large brick building. The audi- 
ence that used to sit over there is departed. And the 
young man who sang is gone. I catch myself won- 
dering where he is. The only things that have not 
changed and still abide are the solemn stars and the 
silent but eloquent sky. Men come and go; but God 
and his work abide forever. 



DOUBTFUL PRAISE. 

I heard recently quite an equivocal compliment paid 
a preacher. The brother, who was overflowing with 
praises of the minister's liberality, said: 

"W hy, sir, he was that generous that once he gave 
his wife's shoes away to a beggar." 

To this I replied quite dryly: 

"So he gave away his wife's shoes and not his own?" 



272 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



The brother suddenly became thoughtful, and said 
nothing more. 

Somehow the incident reminded me of Rowland 
Hill, who was accustomed to bestow upon every men- 
dicant who met him, the money that his church gave 
him for the support of his family. It was a strange 
kind of benevolence which relieved a stranger he knew 
nothing about, and brought distress and need to his 
own household. 

This in turn reminded me of a type and stripe of 
Christianity, which would scalp or skin a man for 
disagreeing doctrinally with the scalper and skinner. 

And this last thought brought to mind a most re- 
markable expression of a celebrated French writer. 
The sentence was, 

"The Wickedness of Good." 

A PLEA FOR FREEDOM. 

The man or woman with Monastic conceptions of 
Christianity, who would hammer, saw, plane and shape 
every Christian down to some single earthly likeness 
or opinion of what is right; who w r ould make us 
all wear long faces and dress alike, would not only 
cause the church to look like an Orphan Asylum with 
its checked aprons and hair parted the same way but 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



273 



also frustrate some of the most gracious and important 
purposes of God. 

Heaven is to be the everlasting abode of the holy. 
May we become holy and remain so. But in it will 
be that endless variety of gift and grace which will 
add to its charm. 

Let no one of a certain disposition feel shut out 
or at a disadvantage there. The King Himself has all 
the temperaments in his rounded, complete manhood. 
Otherwise He would not be such a satisfying Saviour 
to all kinds of men. The Lord Jesus was not the 
Son of Judea, nor Rome, nor Greece, nor even of a 
Continent. He was greater, broader, mightier than 
all that; He was the "Son of Man." 

DIFFERENCE IN MINDS, 

What a difference there is in minds. Some men 
never say anything worth remembering; others are 
continually coining fresh, original thought into ex- 
pressions that, like standard gold, passes into instant 
usage, a mental currency that never loses value. 

Recently I met in my reading the following remark- 
able utterance of Joseph Cook: 

"Man's life means: 

Tender 'teens, 

Teachable twenties, 



274 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



Tireless thirties, 
Fiery forties, 
Forcible fifties, 
Serious sixties, 
Sacred seventies, 
Aching eighties, 
Shortening breath, 
Death ; 
The sod; 
God!" 

I repeated the lines to a gentleman who gave a 
yawn beore I got half through. I am sure he heard 
nothing after the "forties/' for, with a face that would 
have answered for a page in a blank book, and failing 
to see how he impaled himself with his own remark, 
he said: 

"All my family died in the forties; none reached 
fifty." 

And yet I had just quoted that "Forcible" was a 
predicate, if not a synonym, of "fifty !" 

THE MUD HOLE. 

In our mail to-day came a letter from a young man, 
who among other things wrote the following para- 
graph: "Twice you have pulled me out of the mud. 
And for over a year I have been walking and rejoic- 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

*70 

ing in the light. If ever you see me near a mud hole 
again, you may know that I am there trying to pull 
some one out, and not trying to get in again myself." 

The letter and paragraph filled us with earnest 
thought; and we could but say, "How much better it 
is to be in the mud-cleaning rather than the mud- 
throwing business. How much more helpful to the 
human race to pry a man out of a mud hole, than to be 
strivin gto pull him into one. 

A SERIOUS MISTAKE. 

When will the church wake up to the fact that God 
has never asked it to make money for him ? "Who," 
says the Bible, "goes to war at his own expense?" 
This is the Lord's battle, and if we will do the fight- 
ing, go into the soul-saving business, God will send 
the shekels. Truly he never intended the church to 
be a money-making association, but a money-giving 
institution ! If we attend to the one work he set us to 
do, saving the souls of men, he will open pocket- 
books in every direction and send us all we need in 
financial lines. If the church will obtain the Baptism 
with the Holy Ghost, that same scene beheld in apos- 
tolic times, of the people pouring out their gold, silver 
and treasures to God at the disciples' feet will be wit, 
nessed again. 



276 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



"ALL POOR CRITTERS." 

I read once of an old lady, who, with every report 
of human blunder, sorrow or frailty, would say, "We 
are all poor critters." 

Truly it is so with us, even after the pure heart 
has been given us by the Son of God by the Baptism 
with the Holy Ghost; yet still such are the intellectual 
errors, mistakes of judgment, shortsightedness, and 
often one-sidedness among us, that the sentence ap- 
plies to the highest and best in the land, "All are poor 
critters." 

As we go on through life and see the efforts people 
make to overthrow and hurt one another; as we ob- 
serve cases of "sulks" and "spells;" hear the "you did," 
"I didn't," "you're another," witness the "tell-tale" 
and "strike-back," etc., etc., we feel that grown-up 
people after all are but tall children. It is the same 
old life with many, only projected on a larger scale. 

Truly, if God was not our Father and infinitely piti- 
ful, what would become of the race — yes, even of 
Christians ! 

Verily, we are all poor critters. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



277 



A FORCIBLE HINT. 

A preacher in this part of the country had recently 
given him what is called "a pounding." When the 
people had come and gone, and the pastor with his 
family went in to view and classify the parcels 
on the dining table, they found one bundle in 
brown paper of a long and slender form. On it was 
pinned a white paper bearing the preacher's name. 
Opening the package the pastor's eyes were con- 
fronted with a most respectable-sized backbone that 
had been freshly dressed and purchased at the meat 
market. On the inside of the wrapper were the words, 
"You need this." 



THE TIGER HEAD. 

Can anyone explain to me the fondness that some 
women have for tiger and leopard skin rugs? We may 
not have a cultivated taste, but the things are a per- 
fect abomination to me. They are bad enough in par- 
lors and libraries, but when we have to confront and 
endure them in a bedroom it is time for my long suf- 
fering sex to call a convention and pass a Declaration 
of Independence. 

Recently I had to undergo this trial of patience for 
ten days. There on the floor was the unnecessary 



278 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



skin, and the round, uplifted head of the great ani- 
mal, stuffed as hard as iron and with two glass eyes 
glittering in the light. I could stand the staring eye- 
balls, but I stumbled fifty times day and night over 
that perfectly needless head, nearly breaking my own 
at one time, and cracking and disjointing my toes at 
another. Every time I fell over the skull of that ani- 
mal, I thought of that woman. Oh how I wanted her 
to get full salvation and have the nonsense knocked 
out of her. 

THE RED WOOD TREE. 

While at Santa Cruz I visited the famous Red Wood 
forest, six miles in the mountains. Accustomed to the 
deep, dense woods of Mississippi, yet I could but feel, 
when I saw the California grove, that I had certainly 
beheld the "higher life" in the vegetable kingdom. 
Such was the profound shadow cast by the immense 
trunks and lofty interlocked foliage that at midday 
I seemed to be walking in twilight. As I looked upon 
trees over three hundred feet in height, and from 
ten to twenty feet in diameter, I wondered how any- 
body who saw these exhibitions of divine power could 
ever again doubt the blessing of entire sanctification. 
He who could do so much for a tree would certainly 
not withhold his enlarging, filling, glorifying hand 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



279 



from the soul. Tins was the divine argument they 
addressed to me. They furnished the major and minor 
premises and I drew the conclusion most naturally 
and easily. 

THE CALL OF THE PINE TREE. 

If a man is developing the animal in himself, grow- 
ing hard, and is doubtful whether he has a soul let 
him go in the pine woods and listen to a sound 'that 
is sigh, sob. dirge and song all in one, and he will 
discover that he possesses something besides a body 
And that this something wants something-a great 
Some One-far mightier than itself, to live in it and 
love it. I hate to see the pine woods go. It will 
remove one of the distinctive features of our Southern 
landscapes. Some writer has strikingly described 
certain Southern localities in the sentence 

"A line — and a pine." 
The simple sentence brings up at once a wonderfully 
famihar scene. We have all beheld the far-reaching 
field ot horizon-touching prairie with here and there 
the solitary palm of the Southland. -The line and the 
pme." Taken singly each one affects us and when in 
conjunction there is at once felt a peculiar added force ■ 
the heart swells and the eye fills. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



A TOUCHING EPITAPH. 

Recently we read a short epitaph that a husband 
had composed and caused to be carved on his wife's 
tombstone. As we noted the beauty and pathos of 
the simple lines, we thought who would believe that 
the author of "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" 
could have written such a heart-touching, eye=filling 
little gem, Like a window suddenly opened, it reveals 
a room in the man's heart, if not the house itself, that 
we had not before been allowed to look into. YYe 
will never see one of his books again, or hear the 
man's name mentioned without thinking of these lines: 
"Warm summer sun. 

Shine kindly here ; 
Warm Southern wind 

Blow softly here. 
Green sod above 

Lie light, lie light ; 
Good night, dear heart; 
Good night ; good night." 

THE VACANT CHAIR. 

Here is a piece of household furniture that is beheld 
everywhere. Other articles of the home furnishing 
may come or go, may be present or absent, according 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 281 

to the taste or caprice of the owners of the dwelling, 
but this strangely pathetic and all but ubiquitous 
thing called the vacant chair is to be found in palace 
and hovel, in club room and hotel, in legislative cham- 
ber and in business exchange. Wherever we go we 
notice the empty seat. The chair is left,, but a face and 
form is gone that once being beheld there gives a mean- 
ing,, interest and value to the piece of furniture that 
could never be expressed in dollars by the thousand 
or the million. 

Whether the chair is made vacant by death, or by 
an absence of months and years, still its peculiar power 
is exercised. Its very emptiness has a voice and lan- 
guage ; its silence pleads : its pathetic loneliness seems 
in a strange sense to atone for the mistakes and fail- 
ures of the past, while at the same time it recalls the 
kind and beautiful things which the absent occupant 
once performed. So that we turn away with a swelling 
heart and filling eyes, all but overpowered with the 
feeling that some how the big. busy world has become 
wonderfully empty and that life is hardly worth the 
living— and all because of a single vacant chair. 

When the absent one has been the soul of kind- 
ness, lived to make others happy and comfortable, 
the empty seat then becomes so powerful in its mute 
eloquence that it has to be moved out of sight to the 



282 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



garret or lumber room. Truly a person needs no bet- 
ter lawyer to argue in his behalf in the ecclesiastical, 
social, and home circle than his or her own vacated 
chair. 

Those that have been emptied by unkindness, 
injustice and wrong cannot be numbered. They are 
to be found in the church, both in pulpit and pew. 
Faithful men and women for no other reason than 
that they have been true to the Bible, to the Blood of 
Christ, and to the doctrines of Methodism have been 
invited out, frozen out, and legislated from their places. 
Other forms are thrust quickly into the forsaken seat 
to keep memory and conscience quiet : but the fact 
remains that "David's place is empty," a piece of his- 
tory that is remembered on earth, and never forgotten 
in heaven. 

The vacant chair is to be found also in the house- 
hold. There are women to-day driven forth into a 
lonely, desperate struggle for bread, through the 

drunkenness, unkindness and unfaithfulness of their 
husbands. And there are not only women forced from 
home, but sons, husbands, and fathers. 

We are not sure that Wesley deserved all the credit 
he obtained for his intense activity and multiplied 
labors. He had no home life. 

We have known a son exiled from home by the 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS ^33 

perpetual faultfinding and petulant outbreaks of his 
parents. They were in financial trouble, and allowed 
this misfortune to make them inconsiderate., harsh and 
unjust. When the youth was in a far distant State, his 
lonely chair, sitting back against the wall, did some 
faithful pleading as well as rebuking. 

We know men who have been slowly but surelv 
pushed out of their own homes. King Lear is not an 
unnatural or impossible character. We have seen 
husbands driven out of their true places in the house- 
hold by priests, preachers, society people, mothers-in- 
law, and female friends of the wife. 

Sometimes it is none of these, but the woman has a 
loveless nature, and lives an intensely selfish life. 
Sometimes the wife is a kind of hermorphrodite in 
mental and moral constitution. This of course means 
shipwreck to the -happiness of the family, 

There is something very pathetic in the sight of 
men spending the entire dav in city libraries, or sit- 
ting for hours in the lobbies and reading rooms of 
hotels. It is true that some are there for reasons that 
exculpate the family circle, but there are many others 
who frequent these and other similar places because 
while owning or renting a house, they have no home. 

There are men to-day who, in leaving office and 
store, or jumping off from the train with satchel or 



284 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



valise in hand, do so with a thrill at the heart and in 

profound thankfulness to God for that section of 
Paradise left in the world, that sweet Asylum of Rest 
on earth— a congenial household, a home of peace and 
love. 

But there are many other mansions, cottages and 
cabins where "David's place is empty." And he has 
been banished by some kind of injustice or wrong. 
Like David he endured long, but slipped away at last. 
The cold look was cast so often. The javelin of re- 
proach shot so frequently. His presence seemed so to 
disturb and annoy. He was so often made to feel he 
was in the way; that one day his place was empty. 
Or others crowded him out, and there was nothing 
to do, but to go. 

And now the gun, riding whip, book, paper, slipper 
and dressing gown are put away out of sight. The 
portrait is removed, for its face troubled. The chair 
is pushed back into the corner, and various efforts are 
made to remove all signs that another being ever 
belonged to the household. 

But little things come back unexpectedly, a picture 
is found in an old trunk, and the abandoned, lonesome 
looking chair has a voice of its own, and above all 
there is a presence that strangely fills the absence and 
that will not down or depart. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



285 



* The Bible informs us that David's vacant seat re- 
mained empty forever. He never came back. He was 
in other places, but never in this one again. He sat 
at other tables, but never more at the one from which 
he had been cruelly driven. 

It is this feature which makes certain vacant chairs 
one of the most heart moving of spectacles. 

The preacher cast out of the synagogue from 
preaching and pressing Full Salvation, never gets back 
to the pulpit from which he was flung. He may out- 
grow the seat, or get a better one, but history records 
the curious fact that he never sits again in the chair 
from which he was driven. There is a can not in the 
case, as well as a will not or shall not. According to 
what we see in life there is no backward path for 
such cases. The place they leave is never filled by 
them again. 

So the boy driven from home by unkindness comes 
back no more. The daughter rushed into marriage to 
escape unpleasant surroundings, does not care to re- 
visit the scenes of past wretchedness. The man out- 
raged and wronged for successive years, at last turns 
his thoughts and pursuits into other channels for 
occupation and happiness, slips away from the un- 
happy environment and is gone. His place, like that 
of David, becomes empty forever. 



255 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



The seasons come and go; people arrive and depart; 
the house is lighted up; the song floats out of the 
window; the table is set and has its guests; but some 
one is gone, who never returns. 

One memorable hour the javelin was shot for the 
last time. Xext day the seat was empty. Some one 
had gone. Another vacant chair had been added to 
that already great number, which are to be found all 
over the land, in church and State, in hall and home, 
each one standing for some melancholy chapter of 
life history, and speaking in its dumb but eloquent 
way of unrighted wrong, of unconsoled sorrow, and 
of some absent wandering one who never will return 
again. 



THE GATEWAY OF BLUE, 

The scene is that of a thriving city, built on a 
declivity, with a background of lofty hills, and front- 
ing a broad and beautiful bay, while still farther west 
lies the mighty Pacific Ocean. A great semi-circular 
range of snow capped mountains glitter far away in 
the north, while southward another range, purple by 
distance, comes down to the edge of the bay and with 
a gentle terminal slope makes a blue gateway to the 
sea beyond. 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 287 

As I look from my window, or from a lofty hill- 
side, at this misty, purplish gate in the distance open- 
ing and leading to the ocean still farther away, I recall 
the sensations of earlier and hopeful years, when at 
such a sight my heart would fairly break with long- 
ings almost indescribable. Whether it was a line of 
blue mountain domes on the horizon, or a great river 
winding away and losing itself under the horizon, or 
the ocean itself spreading before me until its far dis- 
tant wave-marked boundary seemed to touch the opal- 
escent border of the sky, each separate scene awak- 
ened in the heart a great ache and yearning to get 
past the mountains, follow the river, and sail far 
beyond the sky and sea line to some land or shore, to 
some place or circumstance where the something or 
somebody or somewhat that the spirit craved would 
be found. 

The imagination of youth, and the restless, feverish, 
unsatisfied state of the unsaved soul has much to do 
with these day dreamings, and sweetly miserable long- 
ings of early life. 

Time is a great revealer and undeceiver; experience 
brings us better sense with the flying years ; and sal- 
vation does even more. 

Many of us have climbed the hills, passed over the 
mountains, gone to the end of the river, sailed over 



288 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



the broad sea, and walked the streets and shores of 
far distant cities and countries. And we never found 
by travel what the spirit dreamed about, and the heart 
longed after. We met restless people like ourselves 
wherever we went. They had the same anxious, 
troubled look that we had, and seemed like ourselves 
to be seeking something. They appeared to think it 
was over the mountains, up the river or across the 
sea, but we had just come from there and knew 
they were mistaken. And so the great currents of 
life pass each other in the fruitless quest. 

Right here many become sour and bitter, wreck the 
life with opium or liquor, commit suicide or other- 
wise plunge into everlasting ruin. 

But we thank God that many others, after bitter 
disappointments up the river, over the mountains and 
beyond the sea, sank with tears, sighs, consecration 
and faith at the foot of the cross, and had something 
breathed upon and imparted to the soul that has kept 
it sweet and steady ever since. And so it happens 
to them who have taken deep lessons from the Son 
of God, that their hearts are kept from breaking in a 
heart-breaking world. Spiritual condition is found to 
be better than earthly circumstance. They have 
ceased looking to the river, or beyond the mountains 
or across the ocean for happiness. They have found 



LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 



289 



rest, peace and blessedness in the possession of an 
indwelling Christ His voice has hushed the storm, 
his foot has leveled the wave, and deep within them 
is a great calm. And behold all such like the dis- 
ciples "find themselves where they wanted to be." 

So the blue gateways of Nature change in their 
significance as time rolls by and grace comes in. They 
lose their power to beguile and deceive us with their 
beckoning, but unrewarding hands. We have sailed 
past them too often on fruitless voyages. We cannot 
go again. Their very shape and form have become 
to the mind like a monument to the buried hopes and 
past failures of life. 

But we have still a gateway of great beauty and 
attractiveness left us in this life to look upon. It is 
distant like the others, and also blue; but it is much 
larger. It is above us, and for lack of a better name 
we call it the Sky; but it is nothing else but the sun- 
lighted, star-gemmed Portal of Heaven standing wide 
open for every yearning, longing soul of earth. 

And certain it is that if we go through this gate 
into the heavenly country beyond, there will be no 
disappointment nor regret forever. The King of the 
Land will welcome us. And the Book says we will 
hunger no more, neither shall the sun light on us or 
any heat. We will not grow old, or become sick, or 



290 LIVING ILLUSTRATIONS 

suiter any more pain. The Lamb will lead us to liv- 
ing fountains of waters, and God himself will wipe 
away all tears from our eyes. 



THE END. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent Magnesium Cx ze 
Treatment Date: Oct 2005 



